Senior IPS officer Deven Bharti (IPS:1994:MH) was on Wednesday (04.01.2023) appointed as Special Commissioner of Mumbai Police, which is a newly created post. Presently, Bharti is an Additional Director General and was awaiting a posting.
The city police till date had a police commissioner who had five joint commissioners reporting to him. The creation of a new post will divide responsibilities. As per sources in the home department, the Joint Commissioner of Police, Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Law & Order, and Crime may report to the Special CP.
Bharti is close to Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and was one of Mumbai’s most powerful bureaucrats under Fadnavis when he was CM. He was Joint Commissioner of Police (Law & Order) when the BJP leader was Chief Minister of the state from 2014 to 2019. Subsequently, he was shifted to the Anti-Terrorism Squad on promotion to Additional Director General of Police (ADGP).
When the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government came to power in Maharashtra in 2019, Bharti was made Joint Managing Director of the Maharashtra State Security Corporation. On December 13, 2022, Bharti was replaced by Joint Commissioner (Traffic) Rajvardhan and since then he had been awaiting a new posting.
