Maharashtra DGP Rashmi Shukla has been granted a two-year term until January 2026 to lead the Maharashtra Police. The 1988 IPS officer assumed the role of Maharashtra DGP in January 2024 and was initially set to retire in June 2024. However, with the new government resolution (GR), she will now serve a complete two-year tenure until 2026.
The state government, led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, referenced the Prakash Singh judgment of the Supreme Court, advocating for a two-year term for state police chiefs to shield them from political pressures. A senior home ministry official explained that the Maharashtra Police Act stipulates a two-year tenure only if the officer is not retiring.
Shukla had been on central deputation, heading the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), and returned to the state after the Bombay High Court dismissed two of the three FIRs filed against her in Pune and Mumbai in December. Following the change in government to the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis administration in Maharashtra, the third case was transferred to the CBI. Subsequently, the case was closed after the court approved the CBI’s closure report, facilitating her return to the state.
During the tenure of the MVA government, three FIRs were filed against Shukla, accusing her of illegally intercepting calls of MVA leaders and leaking data from the State Intelligence Department (SID), which she had previously headed, to Opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis. In two of the cases, Shukla was named as the accused.
She was transferred from her role as State Intelligence Commissioner (SID) to Civil Defence, considered non-executive, in 2020. In February 2021, Shukla went on central deputation as ADG of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and eventually assumed the role of SSB head.
