Rashmi Shukla Becomes Maharashtra's First Woman DGP (image: X @SouleFacts)

After the retirement of former Director General of Police, Rajnish Seth, the Eknath Shinde government of Maharashtra appointed seniormost IPS officer of the state, Rashmi Shukla in his position. Ms. Shukla thus became the first woman DGP of the state. She is currently serving as the Director General of Sashastra Seema Bal, the border guarding force along the borders of Nepal and Bhutan. Before that, she served as additional Director General at Central Reserve Police Force.

Reshmi Shukla will have a brief tenure of six months as the DGP, as she will be retiring on June 30 this year. Along with Ms Shukla, two other IPS officers were shortlisted by the empanelment committee of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) during its meeting on December 29. The decision to appoint Ms Shukla came after the Maharashtra Chief Minister, Eknath Shinde’s meeting with Deputy Chief Ministers, Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar on Wednesday.

When the senior NCP politician Dilip Walse Patil was the Home Minister, Rashmi Shukla was accused of illegal and unauthorized tapping of leading politician’s phones. The politicians included Sanjay Raut of Shiv Sena, Eknath Shinde of NCP, and Nana Patole of the Congress. The tapping was reported to happen between 2015 and 2019, when Ms Shukla was the head of the state intelligence department.

Two FIR were registered against Rashmi Shukla, after high level inquiry based on the report filed. The FIR was registered at Colaba police station in March 2022, and at Pune under the IPC and Indian Telegraph Act. When the then government, Maha Vikas Agathi (MVA) collapsed, and the Shiv Sena – BJP government took over, the two FIRs were dissolved by the Bombay High Court. A third case was referred to CBI against Rashmi Shukla on the same issue, which later submitted a closure report.