- Senior-most Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Police Computer Wing (PCW) Pronab Mohanty of the 1994 batch of IPS is likely to be promoted as DGP this week.
By northsouthblock.news
Senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the 1990 batch, Director General of Police, Commandant General, Home Guards & Director, Civil Defence, Kamal Pant will retire this month-end after completing an impeccable career of 34 years. Senior-most Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Police Computer Wing (PCW) Pronab Mohanty of the 1994 batch of IPS is likely to be promoted as DGP this week.
Pant was literally baptised by fire as Commissioner of Police, Bengaluru city, 10 days after he had assumed the top office on August 1, 2020. On August 11, massive riots had broken out in Bengaluru East following a sacrilegious post by the nephew of then Congress Pulikeshi Nagar MLA, with an over-2000-strong mob attacking DJ Halli and KG Halli police stations, vandalising public and private property and setting the MLA’s house ablaze.
It was an acid test for Pant as it was right in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, and a large number of police personnel were either kept off duty or were in quarantine following the pandemic protocol. The riots were brought under control but not before many, including cops, media persons and others, were injured in the arson. Three people were killed in police firing that night.
In September that year, Pant faced another major crisis — of contraband drugs in the city. The police came down with an iron hand and celebrities from Sandalwood and the entertainment industry were arrested. His stint as commissioner was once again put to test after the Bitcoin scam broke. “Neither were any Bitcoins transferred from the account of hacker Srikrishna, nor was any Bitcoin lost,” he had stated in a press release then.
Known to be a tough officer, Pant has headed some sensitive assignments during his tenure and taken some tough decisions. As ADGP, Prisons, in 2015, he was appointed to head the special investigation team to probe the alleged multi-crore corruption scandal in the Lokayukta office, involving the son of the then Lokayukta, in which the latter, with his son and other accused were chargesheeted.
As ADGP, Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP), he was a member of the Auradkar Committee, which was constituted in 2016 by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to address the pay and allowances related issues of the Group ‘C’ police personnel comprising constables (PCs), head constables (HCs) and assistant sub-inspectors (ASIs) in the State.