Satya Pal Singh

Satya Pal Singh (born 29 November 1955) was India's Minister of State for Human Resource Development responsible for Higher Education and Minister of State in the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation.

Singh was born on 29 November 1955 to Ramkishan and Hukmwati, in Basauli in Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh.

He is a post-graduate in chemistry from Digambar Jain College, Baraut and has also done M. Phil in Chemistry from Delhi University.

He secured an MBA from Australia and also has a MA in Public Administration and Ph.D. in Naxalism from Nagpur University.

Before joining the I.P.S, Singh wanted to become a scientist.

Satya Pal Singh is a retired IPS officer of Maharashtra cadre and 1980 batch.

Singh's first posting was as Assistant Superintendent of Police of Nasik.

He then went on to become the Superintendent of Police of Buldhana.

Prior to being appointed the Mumbai Police chief, Singh was Maharashtra's Additional Director General of Police.

He also served as the Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) in Mumbai.

During his tenure as the Crime Chief of Mumbai, he is credited for breaking the backbone of the organised crime syndicates that terrorised Mumbai in the 1990s, including the Chhota Rajan, Chhota Shakeel and Arun Gawli gangs.

During the same time in the late '90s, when gangland activity was at its peak in Mumbai and the mafia in Mumbai went berserk with several high-profile killings, Singh formed special police squads and cracked down on several underworld figures.

That tenure saw several encounter killings in Mumbai with specialists such as Daya Nayak, Pradeep Sharma and Vijay Salaskar given the licence to take on the underworld.

It was during this stint that the 25 August 2003 Mumbai bombings at Gateway of India and Zaveri Bazaar took place; he is credited with having been the officer at the helm when the case was detected.

As Police Commissioner of Nagpur, he began an outreach programme called Mission Mrityunjay.

This was an anti terror initiative that aimed to enlist college students in the fight against terrorism whereby students recommended by college authorities assisted the police in intelligence gathering and reported suspicious and anti-social activities on campus and in the city.

Apart from fighting terrorism, the police hoped that these Mrityunjay Clubs would help develop communal and social harmony among the youth and improve their relationship with the police.

During his stint 386 such clubs were formed in the city.

Identical programmes were launched in Pune as well as Mumbai during his tenure as the Police Chief of the respective cities.

In Pune, the city police had reached out to 122 senior colleges and 86 junior colleges through Mission Mrityunjay.

However, this programme met with some rough weather during its trial in Mumbai as its legitimacy and choice of name was questioned by the State Minorities Commission.

As Nagpur police chief, Singh had also busted the 'matka' gangs there, unearthing a local politician's links to the high-profile racket.

His tenure as Pune Police Commissioner was witness to the 2010 Pune bombing which occurred at the German Bakery that killed 17 people and injured at least 60 more.

During this stint he famously courted controversy by taking on his own boss, the then Maharashtra Home minister Ramesh Bagwe, when he refused clearance to renew Bagwe's passport since the minister had no less than 19 cases pending against him, some allegedly criminal.

When Singh refused to buckle under political pressure, he was shunted out to the Establishment Wing of Maharashtra Police.

In June 2011, weeks after being appointed chairman of a special investigation team constituted by the Gujarat High Court to probe the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case, Singh was replaced after requesting the court to relieve him after he cited differences of opinion between two other SIT members.

Singh said there was difference of opinion between the other two members of the SIT, Mohan Jha and Satish Verma, and said it would be difficult to rely on them for investigations.

On 23 August 2012, Singh was appointed as the Police Commissioner of Mumbai after his predecessor Arup Patnaik was facing flak and eventually shunted out for his handling of the Azad Maidan riots that occurred on 11 August in the city.

Several policemen were injured in that melee.

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray, during a massive rally in Mumbai, had demanded immediate ouster of Patnaik over the violence at Azad Maidan, for allegedly failing to control the situation during a demonstration to protest alleged persecution of Muslims in Assam and Myanmar.

Patnaik was also in line of fire by the Opposition for handling of the Azad Maidan mayhem.

He is a Member of Parliament (MP) since 2014, representing Baghpat constituency, Uttar Pradesh in the 16th Lok Sabha and then retaining his seat in 2019 elections.

He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

He formerly served as the Police Commissioner of Mumbai.

He is also Chancellor of Gurukul Kangri University.

His daughter, Charu Pragya is a spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha (BJYM).

On 31 January 2014 Singh tendered his resignation and applied for the voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) and sought to be relieved as soon as possible from his post so he could contest the upcoming national elections.

Home Minister RR Patil, who belonged to the Nationalist Congress Party, announced that Dr Singh's application was accepted with immediate effect.

The Democratic Front government in Maharashtra was in a hurry to process the VRS application for voluntary retirement mainly to facilitate his joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and to possibly enable him to attend a rally in Meerut and join the party in the presence of Gujarat CM Narendra Modi and BJP chief Rajnath Singh.

Singh was the first serving Police Commissioner of Mumbai to resign from his post.