Biju George Joseph, a 1995 batch IPS officer has been appointed as Commissioner of Jaipur Police – one of the most coveted postings in Rajasthan police. Joseph was Jodhpur Police Commissioner when Asaram was arrested for raping a minor in August 2013.
This is for the first time, an ADG rank officer has been appointed as the Commissioner. On all the six previous occasions, this post was first occupied by senior Inspector General rank officers. Most of them including Anand Srivastava got promoted to ADG while serving on the post.
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Joseph, who was posted as Additional Director General (ADG) Vigilance, has replaced Anand Srivastava, a batch senior to him, has been at the helm since the beginning of Ashok Gehlot government from December 2018. Srivastava, a close confidante of Gehlot, had to be transferred as to comply with the directions of Election Commission of India (ECI) which states that field officers have to be transferred if their stay on that particular post is more than 3 years in the polling state.
ECI had given a deadline of July 31 to execute transfer of such officers. Anand Srivastava remained at Commisioner post till the last hour as his transfer order was released just before stroke of the midnight. Srivastava's new address will now be the office of ADG law and order at Police Headquarter.
Strict and upright Officer
A native of Kerala, Joseph is considered as a strict and no nonsense officer. His boldness was evident when he executed the arrest of Asaram as the Commissioner of Jodhpur Police. There was immense political and other pressure for letting the rape accused Asaram go. But he instructed his team not to budge under pressure and book the culprit on merit of the case.
A recipient of President's medal for distinguished service, Joseph is known to be empathetic toward public. While he deals criminals with iron hand, he gives all ears to victim
Joseph not new to Jaipur Commissionerate
Biju George Joseph is among few officers who were the “founding” officers of Jaipur Commissionerate. Joseph was appointed as additional commissioner in Jaipur Commissionerate barely three months after it was set up January 1, 2011. He was second in command to the first Police Commissioner B L Soni. Later he also held charge of Commissioner for 5 months when Soni was transferred to Rajasthan Police Academy after the controversial lathi charge on lawyers.
From Jaipur, he was transferred to Jodhpur in August 2013 and was appointed as Commissioner of Police. He had two short stints as Police Commissoner Jodhpur – first from August 2013 to January 2014 and then from January 2019 to July 2019.
Other contenders in race
Apart from Joseph, there were other strong contenders also for this post. Among the frontrunners were ADG Ashok Rathore, a 1994 batch officer, who is holding important assignment of SOG and STS which is investigating politically sensitive Sanjeevani scam involving union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. He had been Jodhpur Police Commissoner post for four years. Another officer is Hawa Singh Ghumaria, who is a 1997 batch officer holding the post of ADG (traffic). He had been IG in important ranges like Jaipur, Jodhpur and Ajmer. He had come closer to Gehlot government during the political crisis in 2020.
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