The 1988 batch senior IPS officer Rashmi Shukla has been appointed as the New DGP of Maharashtra. She was serving as the Director General of Sashastra Seema Bal.
She will replace Mr. Rajnish Seth, an IPS officer of 1988 batch too, who has been transferred and posted as the new Chairman of the Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC).
Rashmi Shukla is the most senior IPS officer of the state. Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis said that the state government has submitted a list to the Union Home Ministry according to the level of seniority.
In terms of seniority, Ms Shukla is followed by Maharashtra Police Housing and Welfare Corporation Managing Director Sandeep Bishnoi and Mumbai Police Commissioner Vivek Phansalkar, both are 1989 batch IPS officer.
Ms Shukla will retire on 30 June 2024, while Mr Bishnoi on 31 March 2024 and Mr Phansalkar on 31 March 2025.
She came into limelight in March, 2022, when she was accused of tapping the phones of Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut and NCP’s Eknath Khadse in 2019. An FIR was also lodged against him. She was the head of the Intelligence Department of Maharashtra at that time. After this, the first FIR was registered against him in Pune and the second in Colaba, South Mumbai.
The decision to appoint her as the top cop of the state, came more than three months after the Bombay High Court quashed this FIR.
Before being posted on a central deputation, Ms Shukla had held several key posts in Maharashtra, including serving as the Pune police commissioner and director of the state intelligence wing. She had also served as the Additional Director General of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).
She has also been a Mumbai Police Inspector. She was the second woman police commissioner of Mumbai.
She has also been accused of leaking a classified report that exposed a nexus between some police officers and middlemen who offered transfers and postings for money. The complaint stated that she leaked a confidential report she had prepared in 2020 when she was the Commissioner of the State Intelligence Department (SID). However, she has denied any wrongdoing and claimed that she acted in the interest of national security and public service.
Born on 15 August, 1965, she hails from Mumbai, Maharashtra. Her husband Mr Uday Shukla was also an IPS. He died in 2018 at the age of 58.
She has also received President’s Medal in the year 2004 and 2013.
Apart from this, he has received many other honors.
