Appointment of Rakesh Asthana as Delhi Police Commissioner challenged in Supreme Court

The decision of the Central Government to make senior IPS Rakesh Asthana, who has been embroiled in controversies, as the Delhi Police Commissioner, has been challenged in the Supreme Court. Advocate ML Sharma has filed a petition in this regard. In the petition, a demand has been made to cancel the appointment of Rakesh Asthana. Sharma has demanded contempt action against PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah and officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs in this matter. It has been said in this petition that appointing Asthana as Delhi Police Commissioner four days before his retirement is against the decision of the Supreme Court.
It is worth noting that politics has also heated up in the matter of Rakesh Asthana being appointed as the Commissioner of Police of Delhi a few days before retirement. The Delhi Assembly on Thursday passed a resolution against the appointment of Asthana as the Delhi Police Commissioner and asked the Home Ministry to withdraw the appointment.
Rakesh Asthana’s tenure as the former Special Director of the CBI was surrounded by controversies, he was removed from the CBI in 2018. After this he was made the chief of BSF. Rakesh Asthana, a 1984 batch IPS officer, has been the DG of BSF as well as the Chief of NCB. During his tenure as the Special Director in the CBI, his dispute with the then CBI chief Alok Verma was in the news. In the year 2017, Alok Verma had opposed the appointment of Asthana as a special director.
Asthana is considered very close to PM Narendra Modi. In Delhi Police, there has been a stir in the IPS of the outside cadre as the police commissioner. Asthana is the third police commissioner from outside cadre after SS Jog and Ajayraj Sharma. The decision was taken within a month after Balaji Srivastava was given the additional charge of commissioner.