lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung has appointed Sudhir Yadav — a 1985 batch IPS officer as new Director-General (Prisons) — with the order to this effect being issued on Thursday.
Yadav currently heads the Delhi Police Provisioning and logistics unit as Special Commissioner after being transferred to the Capital from Andaman & Nicobar Islands in September last year.
The post of D-G (Prisons) fell vacant after Alok Kumar Verma took over the post of the Delhi Police Commissioner from Bhim Sen Bassi on February 29. Yadav has held several important assignments in Delhi Police such as DCP of North and South districts. He headed the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) as Additional Commissioner of Police. He was posted as Joint Commissioner of Police, Northern Range (now known as Central range) and headed Delhi Traffic Police as Special Commissioner of Police before being transferred to Andaman & Nicobar Islands as Director General of Police.
Earlier, the Home Department of the Delhi Government issued order of the appointment of senior police officer JK Sharma of the 1982 batch as DG (Prisons) without the approval of lieutenant-Governor. Sharma took charge as DG (Tihar) just for an hour and later surrendered the post. Sharma had expressed eagerness to head the prisons after proper order was issued by the l-G. Sources said Raj Niwas was not happy with the appointment of Sharma as DG (Tihar) as prior approval from the l-G’s office was not taken. Just after Sharma took the charge of DG Tihar, Raj Niwas called him and advised to surrender the charge, saying the l-G might declare the appointment as null and void.
Sharma immediately after the call sent a letter to Principal Secretary (Home) SN Sahai stating that the “order has not been issued with the approval of competent authority” so he will not be able carry on with the charge of Tihar Jail, sources said.
Also, Sharma wrote, “I took over the charge of Director General (Prisons) in addition to my duties as DG (Home Guards) but since the order referred above has not been issued with the approval of competent authority, hence the charge taken over by undersigned (him) is hereby returned to the earlier officer who was holding the charge. It is further informed that I will be happy to resume the charge on approval of competent authority.”