New Delhi: In a move that has surprised the security establishment, Delhi Police Commissioner Satish Golcha, a 1992-batch IPS officer who took charge in August last year, was removed from the post on Friday and replaced by Anurag Kumar, a 1994-batch IPS officer who was serving as Special Director in the Intelligence Bureau.
While the government has not assigned any official reason for the leadership change, multiple senior security establishment sources told The Sunday Guardian that the decision followed growing concern within the Ministry of Home Affairs over the state of security preparedness in the national capital.
According to the sources, the November 2025 Red Fort terror attack figured prominently in the internal assessment. The incident, they said, exposed significant intelligence and operational shortcomings after investigators found that the explosive device contained TATP (Triacetone Triperoxide) along with ammonium nitrate, and subsequent investigations revealed that bomb-making chemicals had allegedly been stored in the Delhi-NCR region without being detected by the security apparatus.
Sources further claimed that intelligence inputs regarding the plot had been shared with the Delhi Police on the day of the attack, but the force took several hours to fully deploy personnel on the ground. They described the episode as having raised serious questions within the internal security establishment regarding operational preparedness and response mechanisms in the national capital.
The Sunday Guardian had earlier reported that the Red Fort attack had exposed major intelligence and security lapses, particularly the alleged failure to detect the movement and storage of explosive material in the Delhi-NCR region before the attack.
Officials declined to officially link the change in leadership with the Red Fort attack or any specific security incident. However, sources said the decision should not be viewed in isolation, given Delhi’s strategic importance as the seat of the Union government, the presence of Parliament, the Supreme Court, diplomatic missions and numerous critical national institutions.
According to the sources, a change of Delhi Police Commissioner within less than a year of assuming office is an uncommon administrative decision and is being interpreted within security circles as a strong message to the entire bureaucracy.
