The Centre’s decision to promote Gujarat-cadre 1994-batch IPS officer Manoj Sashidhar to the rank of special director in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is a routine personnel move on paper, but one with practical implications for both the agency and Gujarat’s policing strength.
The promotion, announced in early September, elevates an officer with long experience in state policing and a string of central investigations into a senior leadership slot within India’s premier federal probe agency. Sashidhar will serve in the role until his retirement on November 30, 2030, or until further orders.
A special director in the CBI assists the director in overseeing investigations, administration and policy implementation. The post sits above that of joint director and additional director in the organisation’s hierarchy; holders typically run major verticals or regional wings and act as the director’s principal deputies on sensitive matters.
Sashidhar has been serving as additional director in the CBI since 2021. He was considered to be in the reckoning for the post of Gujarat director general of police as the six-month extension of incumbent Vikas Sahay is expected to end in December. Now, this appointment takes Sashidhar out of that race.
For the CBI, leadership depth matters as the agency continues to handle multiple politically-sensitive and complex cross-border financial probes. For Gujarat, however, the promotion has the predictable side-effect of shrinking the pool of senior officers available for state responsibilities because central deputation removes experienced leaders from local deployment.
A native of Kerala, Sashidhar’s rsum spans district policing, intelligence, anti-terror and city crime leadership. As a Gujarat cadre officer, he served as superintendent of police in multiple districts, joint commissioner and crime branch head in Ahmedabad, and as commissioner of police, Vadodara. He also led the state’s Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and held senior intelligence responsibilities, postings that combine investigative experience with operational management in urban and counter-terror settings. Sashidhar was also the chairman of the Committee that was formed to revise the Gujarat Police Manual.
At the CBI, Sashidhar has been publicly linked with a number of headline investigations, which include probes into the AgustaWestland VVIP helicopter deal, the Vijay Mallya bank-fraud case and high-profile corruption allegations. Sashidhar was also a member of the CBI team deployed to probe actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death. In recognition of his service with the central agency, he was awarded the President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service in 2021.
Gujarat’s IPS cadre numbers add important context to why promotions to central posts matter locally. The state’s authorised strength is of 208 IPS officers. The state government submitted in the legislative assembly in February that 198 posts were filled against that sanctioned strength, leaving several vacancies; concurrently, around 24 Gujarat cadre officers are on central deputation. The deputations and vacancies together translate into fewer experienced officers available for district, city and specialised state units such as ATS and crime branches.
Such shortfall has operational consequences: states rely on the availability of senior officers for local intelligence coordination, counter-terror readiness and management of major crime investigations. “Central deputations are coveted by officers, but when seasoned officers move to central agencies, states face either vacancies or the need for acting arrangements and additional charges—solutions that can work in the short term, but which cumulatively affect institutional memory and supervisory capacity,” says a Gujarat cadre retired officer requesting anonymity.
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