ECI names Sanjay Verma as new Maharashtra DGP, replaces Rashmi Shukla. Here's what you need to know

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday named 1990-batch IPS officer Sanjay Kumar Verma on Tuesday as the new Director General of Police (DGP) of Maharashtra. With this, Sanjay Kumar Verma replaced Rashmi Shukla at the top job.

Prior to his appointment for the top job, Verma served as the Director General of Legal and Technical. Sanjay Verma was leading the list of candidates for the full-time DGP position. He is set to retire in April 2028, as per newswire PTI. 

Acting on the opposition's allegations of phone-tapping against her, Shukla was removed by the poll body from her current post. Opposition parties, particularly Congress and NCP (SP), accused Shukla of phone tapping and being biased towards the ruling alliance.

On October 31, Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole wrote to the EC citing a case against Shukla and said the Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led state government "illegally granted" her a term extension in violation of the Maharashtra Police Act. 

Rashmi Shukla was set to retire in June this year but the Mahayuti government in the state gave her an extension. 

After the ECI's insistence, chief secretary of Maharashtra Sujata Saunik suggested the names of 3 IPS officers, one of whom would take the additional charge of DGP for the duration of assembly elections on November 20. 

These names included senior officers like Mumbai police commissioner Vivek Phansalkar, DG (legal and technical) Sanjay Verma and home guard chief Ritesh Kumar. 

Rashmi Shukla took charge as Maharashtra DGP in January this year, making her the first woman officer to head the state police force.

Under the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by Uddhav Thackeray, two cases were registered against her for alleged illegal phone tapping of some political leaders. In the first FIR, she was accused of tapping the phones of Shiv Sena (UBT)'s Sanjay Raut and NCP (SP)'s Eknath Khadse. 

After the FIRs were registered and a Mumbai Police team recorded Shukla’s statement in the phone tapping case in Hyderabad, she approached the court.

Subsequently, the police registered a separate FIR in which Shukla was not listed as an accused. The Bombay High Court eventually quashed the cases against the 1988-batch IPS officer.