Tough officer Dayal, who halted Obama in his tracks, set to take over as top cop

Director General of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Sanjeev Dayal — who had, as Mumbai police commissioner, famously refused to allow US President Barack Obama's Cadillac to advance until US Secret Service snipers vacated unauthorised vantage points along the convoy's route — is likely to be named the successor to Maharashtra Director General of Police K Subramanyam who retires on Tuesday.

Dayal, a 1977-batch IPS officer who hails from Delhi, enjoys immense goodwill among peers for his "impeccable integrity" and professional competence. In his 35 years of service, Dayal has held several key positions across the state. He has also had long stints with the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Special Protection Group (SPG).

After obtaining a bachelor's degree in commerce and a master's in business economics at Delhi University, Dayal was an IPS probationer in Nashik before being posted as additional superintendent of police in Nanded and later, Nashik. Between 1982 and 1986, Dayal was deputy commissioner of police, Mumbai Zone 7, after which he served as superintendent of police (SP) in Latur and Nanded.

Between 1988 and 1992, Dayal was on central deputation with the IB, following which he was posted as SP, Amrawati. From 1993 to 1995, he was additional commissioner of police, Mumbai's North-West.

Dayal served with the SPG from 1995 to 2002. As external security chief in 1999, he was responsible for the security of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee during his historic visit to Pakistan. Dayal had stalled the PM's cavalcade in Lahore for several hours, since local authorities had failed to ensure that the route had been cleared of threats. Despite protests from foreign ministry officials, Dayal refused to back down. He stand was vindicated when a police party sent to clear the route was attacked by militants.

Dayal returned from central deputation as joint commissioner of police (Administration) in Mumbai, in which post he worked to weed out malpractices in the police recruitment process. He began the system of unique identification numbers for candidates, so that their names would not be written on answersheets.

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