Mumbai Police Commissioner Ahmad Javed has been appointed the country’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia, which has a 2.8 million-strong Indian community. The official announcement of Javed’s appointment comes a ahead of a possible visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Saudi Arabia in January. Javed was appointed to the post in September after the previous police chief Rakesh Maria was shunted out following irregularities in the Sheena Bora murder case. But a shortage of senior Muslim officers in the Indian Foreign Service kept the search on for months to find a replacement for Hamid Ali Rao who retired as the country’s envoy to Saudi Arabia in April 2015.
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Saudi Arabia is India’s largest supplier of crude oil. The other contenders are Pune and Navi Mumbai police commissioners K K Pathak and Prabhat Ranjan, IPS officer V D Mishra, Subodh Jaiswal (currently on deputation with the Centre), Maharashtra State Electricity Board vigilance director S P Gupta and Anti-Corruption Bureau additional director-general Sanjay Barve. Another former Mumbai Police Commissioner, Julio Ribeiro, had earlier served as India’s Ambassador to Romania. Born into a royal family, Ahmed may have led a privileged life – he graduated from Delhi’s prestigious St Stephen’s college and joined the Indian Police Service in 1980 – but he is no stranger to the rough and tumble of Mumbai’s crime world. He then served in various postings, including a stint with the Delhi Police between 1983 and 1985.
