Senior IPS officer Sagar Preet Hooda appointed Chandigarh DGP

Panjab University (PU) alumnus Dr Sagar Preet Hooda has been posted as Director General of Chandigarh Police.

Haryana native 1997-batch AGMUT cadre IPS officer had also served as Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) in Chandigarh Police after joining the service in August 1997.

Dr Hooda, who will turn 56 on August 30, was presently posted as Special Commissioner of Police Intelligence with additional charge of Perception Management and Media Cell division, Special Police Unit for Women and Children and Special Police Unit for the North-Eastern Region of the Delhi Police. Earlier, he had also served as Special Commissioner (Law & Order) and Joint Commissioner of Police in Delhi.

“With the approval of competent authority, Dr Sagar Preet Hooda, IPS (AGMUT:1997) is hereby transferred from Delhi to Chandigarh and posted as DGP, Chandigarh, with immediate effect and until further orders,” read an order issued by Anish Muraleedharan, Director (S) of Union Ministry of Home Affairs, this afternoon.

Presently, IGP Pushpendra Kumar has been officiating as the DGP of Chandigarh since June 20 following the transfer of incumbent Surendra Singh Yadav to the Border Security Force (BSF) in April.

Hooda did his post-graduation and PhD in sociology from PU before cracking the civil services to become an IPS officer in 1997. During his service, he pursued higher education and got a Master’s degree in Public Policy Analysis as an Edward S Mason fellow from Harvard University in 2014-15. Earlier, he received a certificate in Public Finance from Duke University Sanford School of Public Policy in 2012 and also did a course in Leadership and Globalisation from the London School of Economics in 2006.

A Chevening scholar and a recipient of the prestigious Webber-Seavey Award, Hooda is known for his skills in governance, conflict resolution, international relations, management, and policy analysis.

Fourth top cop in 3 months

Hooda is the fourth top cop of Chandigarh in less than three months. Following the transfer of DGP Surendra Singh Yadav in April, IGP Rajkumar Singh was assigned the officiating charge of DGP. After Singh’s transfer, IGP Pushpendra Kumar was made the caretaker top cop of Chandigarh on June 20.