Porbandar SP frontrunner for Ahmedabad Crime Branch post

Shukla also led an investigation into the alleged poll code violation by Modi when he took a selfie with the party symbol in hand, soon after voting on April 30 in a polling centre in Ranip. In both cases, Modi has got a clean chit. The final report in the selfie case was submitted on Friday to a magisterial court.

The changes are being considered for the upcoming bypolls for state Assembly seats, which are to be announced soon.

When Shukla claims to have sought transfer twice from the state government, it is keen to keep him posted in the Crime Branch.

However, the Election Commission (EC) had twice raised objections to DCP Shukla’s reattainment in the Crime Branch during elections. Now the government has decided to leave it to the EC to take a final call in this matter.

A senior official from the Home Department said, “We are considering SP Bhadran for the Ahmedabad Crime Branch since he has handled the mafia nexus in Porbandar and is a very sharp officer.”

Bhadran, a 2007 batch IPS officer, has been serving as SP of Porbandar for last three years. He is also a part of the SIT team which is probing the Porbandar encounters case against Ishrat investigator Satish Verma. In a recent meeting with Chief Minister Anandi Patel and senior bureaucrats, the issue of the transfer of DCP Shukla was discussed.

The sources said that the post of DCP in Ahmedabad crime branch is the most important position and only after series of reviews, the government took a decision for the appointment of DCP Crime in Ahmedabad.
“Shukla has been instrumental in key detections of serious offences and cyber crime. However, he had expressed the willingness to move out of the agency twice. We wish that he continues at the same post, but if the EC raises an objection this year he will have to be moved. We have now left it on EC to take a call,” the official said.

Shukla was the investigating officer in the SC-appointed SIT under former CBI director R K Raghavan probing the 2002 riot cases in Gujarat. He has also probed the Naroda Patiya case where BJP minister Maya Kodnnani and Bajrang Dal member Babu Bajrangi were convicted. DCP Shukla is being considered for the post of SP Gandhinagar, however, no concrete decision has been taken on that so far.

The EC had twice raised objection to state government’s stay on maintaining DCP Shukla at the Crime Branch. When the government spared Shukla during IPS reshuffle recently, the EC had transferred him to Jamnagar replacing Sarah Rizvi. However, the government went out of the way and stayed his transfer.  In addition to that, they reinstated him overnight in the Crime Branch again.