The tenure of Chhattisgarh's current Director General of Police (DGP), Ashok Juneja, is set to end in February 2025, prompting speculation about his successor. Juneja was about to retire some years back and has had quite a few extensions over the years. With time drawing close now, the state government has even sent the names of three potential candidates to the centre for consideration.
The names of Arun Dev Gautam, Pawan Dev, and Himanshu Gupta have been sent to the Centre by the Chhattisgarh Government for the post of the next DGP. The Center will now decide which of these senior officers is conducted to this important post. All of them have already been promoted to DGP and thus are eligible for the top post. However, the names of other officers like SRP Kalluri and Pradeep Gupta were kept in the panel by the state government but were not sent to the central authorities.
Tenure of Ashok Juneja to end in February
Ashok Juneja qualifies to hold out his tenure as DGP of Chhattisgarh officially up to 5 February 2025. Originally, this term was to end in August 2023, but was later extended for six months taking him up to February. The government under Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel had earlier been extending his period of stay, with the Congress-led government continuing to put faith in him.
Juneja is an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the 1989 cadre and hails from Delhi. His original state of allocation was Madhya Pradesh. After partition of Madhya Pradesh into two states after dividing it in 2000, he decided to stay in the newly carved-out state of Chhattisgarh. Over the years, he has also served as Superintendent of Police (SP) at Bilaspur and Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) at Raipur. He even held the position of Inspector General (IG) for both Bilaspur and Durg. He was made acting DGP in November 2021 and in August 2022 became the full-fledged DGP of the state.
Why Juneja got extensions
Ashok Juneja’s leadership has been instrumental in maintaining law and order in Chhattisgarh, particularly in combating the ongoing Naxalite insurgency. His efforts have been recognized by both the Congress and the previous government under Vishnu Dev Sai, who also extended his tenure. Under Juneja's leadership, Chhattisgarh has seen significant action against Naxalites, with continued operations to curb the threat of insurgency in the region. His effective handling of law and order, particularly in the context of Naxal violence, has earned him the support of the state government across political transitions.
Now, as his term nears its end, attention has turned to who will succeed him in leading the state's police force at a critical juncture in the fight against Naxalism.
