Patna: The state government on Thursday cited a high court reprieve to justify the appointment of 1984-batch IPS officer Krishna Swaroop Dwivedi as the new director general of police (DGP), replacing Pramod Kumar Thakur (1980 batch), who retired on February 28.

Dwivedi's selection as state police chief was mired in controversy because of his "biased" role during the 1989-Bhagalpur riots. Dwivedi, a native of Uttar Pradesh's Bundelkhand region, was the Bhagalpur superintendent of police (SP) when the infamous October-November 1989 riots had broken out.

Defending the government's decision, principal secretary, home, Amir Subhani said Dwivedi was the seniormost serving officer in DG-rank in the state. Three other DG rank officers - Ravindra Kumar (1984-batch), Sunil Kumar and Gupteshwar Pandey (both of 1987 batch) - were junior to him (Dwivedi).

The contention, however, sounds hollow given that D.N. Gautam (1974 batch) and Neelmani (1975 batch) were made DGPs in 2008 and 2010, respectively, superseding Manoje Nath, a 1973-batch IPS officer.

Ironically, Nitish Kumar was chief minister and Subhani the principal secretary, home, when Manoje Nath was denied the DGP post despite being the seniormost IPS officer in the country.

Referring to the allegations against Dwivedi, Subhani said the then state government had constituted a three-member inquiry commission headed by retired judge Ramnandan Prasad to investigate the role of district officials in dealing with the situation. Two other retired Patna High Court judges, Justice Ramchandra Prasad Sinha and Justice S. Shamshul Hassan, were appointed as members of the inquiry commission. While the chairman submitted his own inquiry report, the two members submitted their joint report to the state government. Justice Ramnanandan Prasad hailed the initiatives taken by then SP Dwivedi to control the rioters, but Shamshul and Ramchandra indicted Dwivedi and other police officials for "negligence of duty." Dwivedi had then moved the high court against the observations of the two members. On December 20, 1996, the high court gave him reprieve and directed the state government not to take any coercive action against the officer based on observations by the two members of the commission of inquiry.

The state government appealed against the high court order in the Supreme Court but the apex court quashed the appeal and upheld the high court directive, Subhani said, adding that Dwivedi got promotions on the basis of his merit and performance in 1998 (selection grade), 2000 (DIG), 2005 (IG) and 2011 (ADG). In 2015, he was promoted to DG rank. In addition, Subhani said, Dwivedi's career as IPS officer, right from 1998 to 2015, was clean and he got promotions five times on the basis of his ability and performance. "His (Dwivedi's) elevation to the post of DGP is as per rules and a right decision from the administrative point of view," Subhani asserted.