S P Vaid removed as J-K police chief; Dilbagh Singh takes charge

In what has taken the administrative circles in Jammu and Kashmir by surprise,  the state government has removed senior IPS officer S P Vaid as the state police chief and appointed 1987 batch officer, Dilbagh Singh as Incharge DGP.

Vaid has been shunted out to the insignificant post of Transport commissioner. According to an order issued by Principal Secretary to Government Home Department, R K Goyal, Dr S P Vaid, DGP J&K is transferred and his services are placed at the disposal of General Administrative Department (GAD) for further posting as Transport Commissioner.

Dilbagh Singh who is currently DGP Prisons, will hold the charge of the post of DGP, J&K in addition to his own duties, till a regular arrangement is made” said an order issued which issued late Thursday evening.

A 1987 batch IPS officer, Dilbagh Singh had earlier served as IGP Jammu also and he belongs to Punjab.

For the last couple of days there were speculations about change of guard in the Police Department due to prevailing situation in the Valley, especially after killings of cops and kidnapping of their family members.

On Tuesday, Jammu and Kashmir government had appointed B Srinivas as the new Additional Director General (ADG) of Criminal Investigation Department (CID). Srinivas has replaced Abdul Gani Mir, who was transferred to police headquarters.

Meanwhile former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said that there was no hurry to replace S P Vaid. “There was no hurry to replace@spvaid. He should have been changed only when a permanent arrangement had been worked out. @JmuKmrPolice has enough problems without having to deal with confusion of leadership”, Omar tweeted.