Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Probably for the first time in the state, a situation will arise starting September 1, 2026, where not a single officer promoted from the State Police Service (SPS) to the Indian Police Service (IPS) will hold the rank of Inspector General (IG).
This will mark the first instance where the IG level will be occupied entirely by directly recruited IPS officers. This situation is expected to persist in the state for approximately 122 days. The reason for this is the continuous retirement of the senior officials promoted from SPS to IPS.
At the beginning of the year, five officials from this category were serving at the IG rank. Among them, Sanjay Tiwari (2004 batch) and Himani Khanna, Anshuman Singh, and Arvind Saxena (all 2006 batch) have already retired.
Mithilesh Kumar Shukla, the last IG from the 2006 batch, will retire on August 30. Upon his retirement, no IPS officer promoted from the State Police Service will remain as the IG.
Following Shukla's retirement, the number of IG-rank officers in the state will drop to 16. The most senior among them is Niranjan Bayangankar (1999 batch).
He is followed by Abhay Singh (2002 batch), Harinarayanachari Mishra and Anurag (2003 batch); Gaurav Rajput, Irshad Wali, Sushant Saxena (2004 batch), Dr Ashish (2005 batch), Ruchivardhan Mishra, Chandrashekhar Solanki, and Chaina N (2006 batch), Sachin Atulkar, Kumar Saurabh, and Krishnaveni Desavasu (2007 batch), and Shiyas A and Lalit Shakyawar (2008 batch).
Meanwhile, Akash Jindal and T Amongla Ayyar are currently on deputation. This situation will persist for four months.
Once the process for upcoming promotions moves forward, IPS officers promoted from the State Police Service will also attain the rank of IG. These promotions are scheduled for January 2027.
Consequently, throughout September, October, November, and December 2026, there will be no IG in the Madhya Pradesh Police who has been promoted to the IPS from the State Police Service.
