Chandigarh Police @ 60: From Kiran Bedi’s 44-day reign to India’s fastest emergency response

In April 1999, one of India’s most celebrated police officers arrived in Chandigarh as its new head in the rank of Inspector General of Police, rationalised VIP security, announced sweeping reforms and clashed spectacularly with the Administration — all in 40 days, before being transferred out. Kiran Bedi’s lightning tenure as IGP Chandigarh remains the most talked-about episode in the force’s history. Twenty-seven years later, as Chandigarh Police marks its Diamond Jubilee and unveils a specially designed logo for 60 years of service, it does so as a force unrecognisable from the one that couldn’t contain its own IGP — today the holder of India’s fastest emergency response record, a 6,000-strong, technology-driven outfit that Dr Sagar Preet Hooda, a man who first served here as a young ASP in 1997, now heads as DGP.

Born of bifurcation

Chandigarh Police came into existence on November 1, 1966, when the Punjab Reorganisation Act bifurcated the state to create Haryana, and Chandigarh was designated a Union Territory. Prior to that, policing in the planned city was administered by Punjab Police. The post of Inspector General of Police was created in 1981. The rank structure was elevated further in 2017 when the Director General of Police post was created, with Tajender Singh Luthra as its first incumbent.

The man who grew with the force

The Diamond Jubilee has a particularly personal resonance for the officer presiding over it. A Haryana native and 1997-batch AGMUT cadre IPS officer, Dr Hooda joined Chandigarh Police straight from the academy as ASP in August 1997 — making the City Beautiful the very first canvas of his policing career. Twenty-eight years later he returned as its DGP, having served as Joint Commissioner of Police, Special Commissioner (Law and Order), and Special Commissioner (Intelligence) in Delhi Police, and holding a master’s in public policy from Harvard University as an Edward S Mason Fellow. He turns 57 on August 30 — heading a force he first served at 28.

A launchpad for the best

Chandigarh Police has also served as a career launchpad for some of India’s most distinguished IPS officers. Parag Jain, a 1989-batch Punjab cadre IPS officer who served as SSP Chandigarh, was appointed Secretary of the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) in June 2025, having played a key role in Operation Sindoor by gathering critical intelligence on Pakistani armed forces. Punjab cadre’s Gaurav Yadav, who also served as SSP Chandigarh, is presently DGP (Head of Police Force) of Punjab. Another Punjab cadre officer, Sumedh Saini, who served as SSP Chandigarh, superannuated as Punjab DGP. On the AGMUT cadre side, Praveer Ranjan, who served as DGP Chandigarh, is currently posted as Director General of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF).

Pioneers of new criminal laws and national record-holders

Chandigarh was among the first in the country to fully implement all three new criminal laws — Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA) — when they replaced the colonial-era IPC, CrPC and Indian Evidence Act on July 1, 2024. In the first year, 3,154 FIRs were registered under the new laws, with a conviction rate of over 91 per cent and average time to conviction dropping sharply from 300 days to 110.

On emergency response, Chandigarh Police set a national benchmark with an average response time of 5.6 minutes in 2025, well ahead of the national average of 18.61 minutes, according to Union Home Ministry data. Heinous crime detection touched 88.6 per cent, with cybercrime enforcement resulting in over 147 arrests and Rs 11.21 crore of cheated money frozen or blocked.

DGP Dr Hooda, unveiling the Diamond Jubilee logo on Thursday alongside school students who had competed in a logo design contest — won by Bhuvnesh Sharma of Ryan International School — said the six decades represented a continuous evolution: from policing a newly-planned city to managing a metropolis of over a million, always in the national spotlight.