Ravada A. Chandrasekhar is new Kerala State Police Chief

The Kerala Cabinet, which met virtually on Monday (June 30, 2025) under the chairmanship of Chief Minster Pinarayi Vijayan, decided to appoint Director General of Police (DGP) Ravada A. Chandrasekhar as the new State Police Chief (SPC).

The decision ends weeks of speculation over the successor to incumbent SPC Shaik Darvesh Saheb, who retires today (June 30).

A 1991-batch officer of the Kerala cadre, Mr. Chandrasekhar currently serves as the Special Director in the Intelligence Bureau. He has been asked to return to Kerala from New Delhi to assume charge at the earliest. In the interim, sources indicate that a senior officer may temporarily head the force until his arrival.

Key posts

Mr. Chandrasekhar, a native of West Godavari in Andhra Pradesh, began his career in Kerala as Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) in Thalassery. Over the years, he has held key posts, including Deputy Inspector General of Thrissur and Kochi Ranges, and the Commissioner of Police, Thiruvananthapuram City. He also served a stint with the United Nations on deputation, before his repatriation to the post of Inspector General, State Crime Records Bureau.

Koothuparamba incident

The CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) apparently chose to disregard the potential fallout of appointing Mr. Chandrasekhar, whose involvement in the Koothuparamba firing incident of November 25, 1994, as the then ASP, had made him an adversary of CPI(M) workers. Despite being implicated in the case, the officer and others had been acquitted by the Kerala High Court in 2012.

Five Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) workers were killed, and six others were injured after the police opened fire on a protest against the then United Democratic Front (UDF) government’s educational policy.

Mr. Chandrasekhar, who was second in the shortlist recommended by the Union Public Service Commission, pipped DGPs Nitin Agrawal and Yogesh Gupta to the top post. The State government also reportedly considered DGP Manoj Abraham and Additional DGP M.R. Ajith Kumar, who faced criticism over the Thrissur Pooram fiasco, for the role.