DGP Anil Kant’s service tenure extended, to continue as police chief till 2023

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a rare instance of a serving state police chief getting an extension, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan while chairing the weekly cabinet meeting here on Wednesday, announced that the serving state police chief Anil Kant's tenure which was to end on January 31 next year has been given an extension till June 30, 2023.

Through this directive, Kant will get a full two years’ tenure as the state police chief and in the process will scuttle the chance of a few other juniors to get to the top post and the biggest loser is going to be B Sandhya, who could have had the chance of becoming state's first lady police chief.

Such a long extension to a serving state police chief has not occurred in the recent past in the state.

Kant ever since taking over as the new state police chief on July 1 this year has by and large remained away from the media glare and so far has not courted any controversy through his actions.

Incidentally in a span of a day, this is the second surprise that Pinarayi has done, when the other day in a first of its kind Vice Chancellor of Kannur University Gopinath Raveendran was given a four year extension, even when he was at the center of an ongoing controversy, where according to many the private secretary of Pinarayi – K K Ragesh's wife Priya Varghese was appointed as an associate professor at the university in the Malayalam department, allegedly in violation of UGC rules and regulations.