NIA chief Sadanand Date
Credit: X/@BureaucratsInd
Mumbai: Dare-devil no-nonsense IPS officer Sadanand Date — who played a heroic role during the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks and oversaw the investigations into the Pulwama terror attacks — is likely to be the new Director-General of Police of Maharashtra.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has okayed the early return of Date, a 1990-batch officer of the Indian Police Service who is the National Investigation Agency (NIA) chief, to the Maharashtra cadre.
On April 1, 2024, Date was appointed as the Director-General of the NIA for a tenure up to his superannuation on December 31, 2026.
Date is expected to replace Rashmi Shukla, the present DGP, who will hang up her boots on January 3, 2026.
Date was the head of Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Maharashtra police before he took over as the NIA chief.
In the past, he had held several important posts, including the Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) in Mumbai.
During Central deputation, he had also served the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and as the Joint Secretary in the Law and Justice Department.
During the 26/11 terror attacks, he took on Pakistani fidayeens Mohammed Ajmal Kasab and Abu Ismail at the Cama and Albless Hospital and was injured.
Before heading the elite Crime Branch-CID of the Mumbai police, he was chief of the Force One, an elite crack commando team formed after 26/11 terror attacks, on the lines of NSG or the Black Cat commandos.
Dr Date has handled several crises in Mumbai — like the hostage crisis when a youth from Bihar, Rahul Raj, entered a BEST bus and took a dozen passengers hostage saying that he wanted to “kill Raj Thackeray” — before being shot dead by the police.
He played a key role in fire-fighting operations during the June 21, 2012 blaze at Mantralaya, and rescued several people.
Date had deposed before the special 26/11 court and the then Additional Sessions Judge M L Tahaliyani had praised his alertness and recorded in the judgment: “Prosecution witness no. 118 (Dr Date) was wearing a bullet-proof jacket. He, however, instead of directly going to the terrace, thought it proper to access the situation, and therefore, he threw one metal object, which was lying on the 6th floor of the building, towards the terrace door. Immediately, there was a burst firing from an automatic weapon from the terrace of the building......”.
During the encounter, he sustained injuries on his right eye, left side of the chest, below armpit, throat, right knee and left ankle due to fragments of grenades.
Date was later awarded the President’s Police Medal for gallantry.
He had attended the University of Minnesota under the Humphrey fellowship programme, where he studied the theoretical and practical aspects of controlling white-collar and organised crime in the United States.
Date has undergone special training with the GSG-9 (Grenzschutzgruppe-9), a special unit of the German Federal Police.