Bhaskar Rao transferred, ADGP Kamal Pant is the new Bengaluru Police Commissioner

Senior IPS officer Bhaskar Rao has been transferred out from his position as Commissioner of Police for Bengaluru City.  The Karnataka government on Friday transferred Bhaskar Rao and made Kamal Pant, who until now was ADGP Intelligence, as the new city police chief. Bhaskar Rao was appointed as the Police Commissioner of Bengaluru on August 2, 2019. 

Rao will now take charge as ADGP Internal Security Division, Bengaluru. 

Pant is also a 1990 batch IPS officer like his predecessor. A top police source said, “This is a routine transfer as more or less all City Commissioners get roughly a tenure of one year. Incidentally, Pant is ranked higher than Rao in the civil list. He enjoys a reputation of high integrity in the state IPS circle.”

Pant was appointed as ADGP intelligence at the same time as part of his previous posting when Rao was made the City Commissioner of Police.

Bhaskar Rao had been appreciated by many for imposing the lockdown quite efficiently in Bengaluru when it was first imposed. He is also an officer who was connected to people through social media and used his Twitter handle to effectively communicate with people.

It may however be recalled that Bhaskar Rao’s appointment as Bengaluru Police Commissioner was surrounded by controversy. Audio clips purported to be of Bhaskar Rao, lobbying for the post of Police Commissioner were leaked to the media a week after his appointment. 

In late March this year, Bhaskar Rao was mired in another controversy after a falling out with Deputy Chief Minister Dr. CN Ashwath Narayan. Sources had told back then that during a meeting with cabinet ministers regarding measures taken to allow Dunzo, Swiggy and Zomato to continue operations during the lockdown, Bhaskar Rao had a feud with DCM Ashwath Narayan. 

Ashwath Narayan allegedly accused Bhaskar Rao of accepting bribes and an angry Bhaskar Rao is said to have walked out of the meeting and allegedly said he would rather quit than be accused of corruption. 

However, that feud seems to have had no effect on Rao’s tenure as the City Commissioner and he had continued for a few months more in the post.

Source: NM