SHILLONG: The state government has appointed Assam police officer R Chandranathan as the new Director General of Police instead of regularising the service of RP Agarwal, the acting DGP of Meghalaya and the senior most police officer.
The state Home department on Tuesday notified Chandranathan, Special Director General of Police (Railways), Assam, as the full-fledged DGP of Meghalaya.
Prior to his new assignment, Chandranathan, the IPS officer of 1986 batch (Assam-Meghalaya cadre), had served in various capacities in Assam.
The UPSC had on October 1 cleared the names of Agarwal, who was temporarily made the Meghalaya DGP, and senior police officers from Assam, Chandranathan and AK Sinha Casshyap.
There were adverse media reports in Assam about certain irregularities and FIRs against Chandranathan.
After the retirement of Swaraj Bir Singh on July 31, no full-fledged DGP was appointed in the state.
Earlier, the move of the NPP-led MDA Government to bring in Assam’s senior police officer Chandranathan as the new DGP had received flak on the ground that Meghalaya has senior police officers capable of leading the police force in the state.
During his 32 years of service in the Indian Police Service, besides serving in Assam, Chandranathan had served the Union government in important positions, including the field and posting in the Intelligence Bureau.
He has the unique distinction of having served in the Unified Commandos of both Jammu & Kashmir and Assam. As a police professional, his areas of specialisation includes counter terrorism, intelligence generation, white collar crime investigation, police administration and police communication.
