NIA chief Sadanand Date repatriated; likely to take over as Maharashtra DGP

New Delhi: Senior IPS officer and NIA chief Sadanand Vasant Date has been repatriated to Maharashtra, and is likely to take over as the state's police chief once incumbent Rashmi Shukla retires next month.

Date, a 1990-batch IPS officer, was appointed as the head of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in March last year.

He is the senior most IPS officer in Maharashtra after the retirement of Shukla.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the premature repatriation of NIA DG Date to his parent cadre Maharashtra, a government order issued late on Monday said.

Date, hailed as a 26/11 hero, is the frontrunner to be the Director General of Maharashtra Police as Shukla's tenure is coming to an end on January 3 next year.

"The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the proposal of the Ministry of Home Affairs for premature repatriation of Sadanand Vasant Date, IPS MH (1990) DG, NIA to his parent cadre with immediate effect," the order said.

Date was honoured with the President's Police Medal for gallantry for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack.

On that fateful night of November 26, 2008, Date, who was then additional commissioner of police, central region, received a call about terrorists firing indiscriminately near the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and later at Cama hospital. A short while earlier, 10 terrorists had arrived in Mumbai by sea and fanned out across the city.

Date and his team had pinned down two Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists -- Ajmal Kasab and Abu Ismail -- on the rooftop of the Cama hospital but the police team received a setback as the terrorists lobbed several grenades and indulged in indiscriminate firing.

Asked earlier about the metallic splinters from the grenades lobbed by the terrorists, Date said that they are still embedded in his body, including one near his eye and he views these permanent remnants not as injuries, but as "medals" carried from a war zone.

Date, 59, who was Maharashtra ATS chief, also served as DIG in the Central Bureau of Investigation, IG (Ops) in the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), and Commissioner of Police for Mira-Bhayandar and Vasai-Virar city near Mumbai.

He has done doctorate in economic offences from Pune university.