Additional Director-General of Police A.K. Viswanathan was posted as the new Commissioner of Chennai Police on Saturday.
Dr. Viswanathan is a third-generation police officer in the family and his wife, Seema Agarwal, is an ADGP rank officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre.
The 1990-batch IPS officer, who was ADGP/Additional Commandant General of Home Guards, will replace Karan Singha, since posted as ADGP/Member, Uniformed Services Recruitment Board.
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Mr. Singha was made the Police Commissioner by the Election Commission ahead of the R.K. Nagar by-poll, which was cancelled following allegations of distribution of cash for votes.
Bestowed with the President’s Police Medal for Meritorious Service in 2006, Dr. Viswanathan earlier served as Additional the Commissioner of Police in Chennai and the Commissioner of Police, Coimbatore. He had a stint in the State Intelligence as its Superintendent of Police, Special Branch and Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Special Branch CID. He was also the Joint Director of the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption.
During his innings in the Special Crimes Branch of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Dr. Viswanathan spearheaded the team that investigated the sensational murder of Telugu Desam Party MLA Paritala Ravindra in Anantapur (Andhra Pradesh) on January 24, 2005. While some of the accused were murdered by the rival gang, eight persons were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
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Mr. Viswanathan’s father P. Aiyasamy joined the Police department as a sub-inspector and rose to the rank of a Superintendent of Police and his grandfather R. Perumal retired as a Head Constable.
He has a Ph.D in Criminal law from Madras University and was the recipient of the President’s Police Medal for Meritorious Service in 2006.
“I will continue the good work of my predecessors. My focus will be on making the city safe and its police, citizen-friendly,” he told The Hindu from the United States, where he has gone for a visit.