Fitness and bike riding aficionado, he served as Mysuru City Police Commissioner in 2015-2016

Bengaluru: Additional Director General of Police (Intelligence) B. Dayananda has taken over as the new Police Commissioner of Bengaluru City this morning. He has replaced C.H. Pratap Reddy who is now the Director General of Police of Internal Security Division.

The shake-up in the Police Department comes days after Congress registered an emphatic victory in the elections. Sources said that the transfers, especially of the Bengaluru City Police Commissioner, were affected by the Chief Minister’s Office as Siddharamaiah holds the portfolio of Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms as well as Intelligence.

In other transfers, Dr. M.A. Saleem, who was serving as ADGP and Special Commissioner (Traffic) in Bengaluru City and who has been efficiently managing Bengaluru’s notorious traffic, has been promoted as the DGP and will take over as the DGP of CID. K.V. Sharath Chandra, who was serving as the ADGP of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Bengaluru is now the new ADGP of Intelligence, and will report directly to the CM.

Taking charge from Pratap Reddy, Dayananda, who had served as the Mysuru City Police Commissioner in 2015-2016, told reporters that he will focus on traffic management and cybercrime. “People have trust in the Department, and I will work hard to retain that trust. There are many challenges, and they will be taken up on priority.  Traffic management in the city needs coordination from civic agencies. The Department will work with the agencies to manage traffic in a better way.”

There is an overload of cases in cybercrime stations and the Police require training to investigate the cases effectively, he said and added that the required training will be provided to all the Policemen to handle cybercrime cases, he said.

Hailing from Ranebennur in Haveri district, Dayananda is passionate about fitness and bike riding. He is known as a tech-savvy officer. He started one of the world’s first Police blogs for dissemination of Police news in 2005, while working as Dakshina Kannada SP.

Under his guidance, the Bengaluru City Police started using various social media platforms to better connect with the public.

He looked after the affairs of the State Forensic Science Laboratory and an exclusive Cyber Forensic Lab to investigate cybercrime was also set up during his tenure.

He has bagged many medals, including Commendation Roll from the DGP of Border Security Force, Chief Minister’s Gold Medal, United Nations Medal for World Peace Keeping, e-Gov Award for Innovation, President’s Police Medal for meritorious service and President’s Police Medal for distinguished service.