The Bihar government on Sunday appointed senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Rajwinder Singh Bhatti as the new Director General of Police (DGP) of the state.






"Rajwinder Singh Bhatti, a 1990-batch IPS officer of Bihar cadre, is appointed as DGP of Bihar till further orders", the notification issued by the state Home Department said.


He is currently on central deputation as the Border Security Force's (BSF) Additional Director General (Eastern Command).


Bhatti will succeed current incumbent SK Singhal, whose term expires on Monday.


He was the Director General of the Bihar Military Police prior to his central appointment.


He worked in a variety of positions in Bihar. During his first central deputation, he worked as a joint director with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).


The most challenging task for Bhatti at this time would be to beef up policing in the state in order to establish the rule of law, which has long been a strong suit of chief minister Nitish Kumar's government but has recently been called into question.


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Though Alok Raj, a 1989 batch officer, is senior to him, the mounting challenge on the law and order front, as well as the question being raised about the police's failure to impose prohibition in the state amid hooch tragedies, appear to have tipped the scales in Bhatti's favour, according to a report by The Hindustan Times. 


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Bhatti has spent a significant amount of time in Bihar. He has also served as assistant superintendent of police (Barh), city SP (Patna), SP in Jehanabad, Gopalganj, and Purnea, inspector general (IG) (Patna zone), IG (security), joint director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), director general (civil aviation), and director general of the Bihar armed police force (BSAP).


(With Inputs From Agencies)