Rajasthan Reshuffles 18 IPS Officers, Anil Paliwal Moves to Home Guards as DG

The Rajasthan government has reshuffled 18 IPS officers in a fresh round of transfers spanning senior leadership posts at the state police headquarters as well as district and range-level charges across the state.

Anil Paliwal, a 1994-batch officer currently posted as DGP, Training and Traffic, Jaipur, has been shifted as Director General and Commandant General, Home Guards, Jaipur, while Malini Agarwal, also of the 1994 batch, takes over as Director General of Police, Traffic, Jaipur, the post vacated by Paliwal.

Among the other senior-level changes, Sharat Kaviraj has been posted as Inspector General of Police, Crime Branch, Jaipur, while Rajendra Singh moves to Inspector General of Police, Vigilance, Jaipur. Anshuman Bhomia has been posted as Police Commissioner, Jodhpur, and Dr Ravi takes charge as Inspector General of Police, Ajmer Range, Ajmer.

Kailash Chandra Bishnoi has been posted as Inspector General of Police, Planning, Modernization and Welfare, Rajasthan, Jaipur, while Dr Preeti Chandra has been posted as Inspector General of Police, Bharatpur Range, Bharatpur, rounding out the range and headquarters-level changes at the IG rank.

Further down the reshuffle, Pradeep Mohan Sharma has been posted as Additional Police Commissioner, Traffic and Administration, Jaipur, while Rajesh Kumar Kanwat takes charge as Superintendent of Police, Balotra. Narendra Singh Meena has been posted as Commandant, 10th Battalion, RAC, Bikaner, and P.D. Nitya has been assigned as Superintendent of Police, Anti-Corruption Bureau, Jodhpur.

Additional district and range-level postings include Ramesh as Superintendent of Police, Crime Branch (Human Rights and Weaker Sections), Police Headquarters, Jaipur; B. Aditya as Superintendent of Police, Hanumangarh; Pankaj Yadav as Superintendent of Police, Jodhpur Rural; Ajey Singh Rathore as Commandant, 7th Battalion, RAC, Bharatpur; and Vishal Jangid as Superintendent of Police, Pratapgarh. Anushtha Kalia has been transferred as Deputy Commissioner of Police (Headquarters), Police Commissionerate, Jaipur.

The reshuffle spans postings from the DG rank down to district Superintendent of Police charges, covering both the Jaipur police headquarters and multiple range and battalion-level assignments across the state. The transfers were ordered by the Rajasthan government and take immediate effect.

Rajasthan's police administration is structured around a headquarters-based Director General of Police supported by several Additional and Inspector General-rank officers overseeing functional wings such as Traffic, Crime Branch, Vigilance and Home Guards, alongside a parallel range and district structure headed by Range IGs and district Superintendents of Police responsible for territorial law and order.

Reshuffles of this scale, spanning multiple ranks from DG down to SP, are typically carried out either as part of a periodic administrative review or in response to a cluster of retirements and promotions that create a chain of vacancies across the hierarchy, requiring the state government to fill several posts simultaneously to maintain continuity in command structures.

The Anti-Corruption Bureau and Crime Branch postings within this round of transfers are among the more closely watched changes, given both units' role in investigating politically sensitive cases, while the Traffic and Home Guards changes at the DG level reflect a rotation between two charges that fall under the broader public-safety and civil-defence functions of the state police.

Battalion-level postings, such as those made within the Rajasthan Armed Constabulary, typically involve officers with prior experience in law-and-order deployment, since RAC battalions are frequently called upon for crowd management, election duty and reserve deployment during periods of heightened security requirement across the state.