Director General (Homeguards) SK Singhal has been given additional charge of DGP, ADG (Headquarters) Jitendra Kumar told news agency PTI. Pandey, a 1987 batch IPS officer, who became a social media sensation when he was investigating late actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death by suicide in Mumbai.
Gupteshwar Pandey had recently been in the headlines for his stout defence of the Nitish Kumar administration when it was under attack from the Shiv Sena-led government in Maharashtra over Bihar Police's probe into the death of Rajput.
This is not for the first time that speculations are being made that Pandey would contest elections. Even in 2009, he had taken premature retirement to contest the Lok Sabha elections, but later the state government did not accept his VRS application and reinstated him in the service.
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After the sudden tragic demise of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, the political barbs between Mumbai and Bihar governments came out in open. Soon after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) got cracking on the case, Maharashtra minister Jitendra Awhad predicting that Bihar DGP would be the next home minister of his state's new government.
"Just in case Nitish Kumar returns as the Chief Minister, this DGP (Pandey) of Bihar will certainly be the Home Minister," tweeted Awhad, a senior Nationalist Congress Party leader.
Even ruling ally Shiv Sena also targeted the police officer by saying that "his boundless joy was apparent on his face after the Supreme Court pronounced its verdict (on handing over the Sushant case to the CBI)".
Even Sena MP Sanjay Raut pointed at how Pandey termed it "a victory of justice over injustice" and said the IPS officer "was only short of waving the Bharatiya Janata Party flag while talking to the media that day (August 19)" in Patna.
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The Bihar cop also hailed actor Rhea Chakraborty by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in connection with Rajput's death as a big win for his state.
The top cop pointed out that the Mumbai Police did not act on the case for close to two months. "They did not behave properly with our officers. We have enormous expectations from the CBI," he had said earlier.
Bihar Assembly election is likely to be held in October-November. It is touted to be a high voltage two-way battle as ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), under the leadership of Janata Dal United (JDU) chief Nitish Kumar is pitched against the Mahagathbandhan of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress.