Geeta Johri appointed as first woman DGP of Gujarat

Gujarat government on 15 April 2016 appointed Geeta Johri as the Director General of Police (DGP). The 1982-batch IPS officer Johri, who has the distinction of being Gujarat’s first women IPS officer, also became the first female DGP of Gujarat.

She was elevated to the post after the state DGP PC Thakur was transferred to the centre as the Director General of Civil Defence and Home Guards on deputation.

About Geeta Johri

• Earlier on 16 April 2015, she was promoted from the rank of Additional DGP to Director General of Police but continued serving as Managing Director of the Gujarat State Police Housing Corporation until 14 April 2016. She was prompted as the DGP after Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) dropped charges against her in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case.

• She was also a member of the Supreme Court appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) under former CBI Chief RK Raghavan, which had probed the ten most heinous cases of 2002 riots.

• She began her career in Ahmedabad in 1982 after clearing the IAS exams.

• She served as the principal of police training school at Vadodara for sometime.

• She first came to limelight in the 1990s when she took on underworld king of Gujarat, Abdul Latif by raiding his house in Dariapur district and arrested his gunman Sharif Khan. However, Latif managed to escape.

• In 2006, Johri, who was posted in Criminal Investigation Department (CID), headed the investigations into the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter and the killing of his wife Kausar Bi.

• She was appointed to the case after Sohrabuddin's brother Rubabuddin filed a petition in the Supreme Court.
• She gathered evidence that confirmed that the encounter was fake and implicated the role of several officers in the fake encounter.

• The evidences led to the arrest of 13 police officers, including ex-Gujarat cop DIG DG Vanzara, SP Rajkumar Pandian and Dinesh MN.

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