NEW DELHI: Bhim Sain Bassi, an IPS officer of 1977 batch, has been appointed as the next Delhi Police Commissioner and will succeed Neeraj Kumar, who will retire this month after nearly a year-long tenure marred by handling of December 16 gang rape incident.
57-year-old Bassi, currently serving as Special Commissioner (Administration), will take charge of the over 80,000-strong force on August 1. He will be the 20th Commissioner of Delhi Police.
Bassi served Delhi Police in various capacities including as Special Commissioner (Traffic), special commissioner (Vigilance), joint commissioner (Southern Range) and additional commissioner (Northern Range). He was also Director General of Goa Police.
The senior IPS officer of AGMU (Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram-Union Territories) cadre, is due to retire from service in February 2016.
He is taking over reins of the force at a time when it has faced criticism on the issue of providing security to Delhi residents, especially women, and his major challenges will include bringing down cases of sexual violence against women and children.
Kumar, who will retire on July 31, had come under severe criticism after the December 16 gang rape of a 23-year-old paramedical student which triggered widespread anger across the country.
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit had slammed Kumar for the way Delhi Police handled the protests in the city in the wake of the brutal gang rape and even demanded his resignation.
Kumar had also come under severe criticism following rape of a five-year-old girl in Gandhi Nagar area of North East Delhi in April.
Hundreds of people had staged demonstration outside Delhi Police headquarters here after it was alleged that two police personnel had offered Rs 2,000 bribe to the victim’s poor parents to hush up the case.
However, Kumar and his force were recently praised for exposing spot-fixing scam in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Director General (Investigation) at the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Kanwaljit Deol and Tihar Director General Vimla Mehra were in contention for the top Delhi police post.-PTI
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