From responsibility to action

A sustained enlargement of the Pimpri-Chinchwad Police Commissionerate’s structure, footprint and sanctioned strength — new police stations, new supervisory posts, new divisions and zones, and land for a permanent headquarters.

The commissionerate was constituted in August 2018 for a city that had already outgrown its policing arrangement, and it kept growing. Its jurisdiction extends past the municipal boundary into the Chakan and Talegaon Dabhade industrial estates and the Hinjawadi IT corridor, with a working population that the resident figures understate.

Four new police stations were inaugurated during the tenure — Kalewadi, Bavdhan, Sant Tukaram Nagar and Dapodi. Sanction was obtained for one Additional Commissioner of Police, two Deputy Commissioners, four Assistant Commissioners and four police stations. Land was secured: 15 acres at Kalewadi Phata and 9 acres at Moshi. Approval was granted during the tenure for what has been reported as India’s first ultra-modern police commissionerate building, to be built at Moshi. Funds for vehicles and equipment were obtained from the Pune District Planning Committee.

The commissionerate has operated from a Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation school building on monthly rent while permanent premises are arranged — the practical reason a headquarters project matters more here than it would elsewhere.

Between December 2022 and 2026 the commissionerate grew from seventeen police stations, four divisions and two zones to twenty-five police stations, eight divisions and four zones. In April 2026 a proposal was sent to the Director General of Police for five further stations — Pirangut, Jambe, Pimple Saudagar, Moshi and Dehu Gaon — which would take the total to thirty, together with a request for one Deputy Commissioner, 20 Police Inspectors, 30 Assistant Police Inspectors, 80 Sub-Inspectors and 820 police personnel.

Sources: Punekar News and Indian Masterminds, 17 December 2024; The Free Press Journal, 4 April 2026.

The creation of dedicated cyber-crime capacity: a cyber police station, and a specialist team of 108 personnel drawn from within the force and known as “Special 108”.

Pimpri-Chinchwad contains one of India’s larger concentrations of information-technology employment. Reporting on the commissionerate identifies IT professionals among the most frequently targeted victims of online fraud — a population that is both technically literate and, because of income and digital exposure, unusually attractive to organised fraud networks.

Approval for a cyber police station was obtained during the tenure and the station became operational. Separately, 108 police personnel holding science degrees or with prior experience in the cyber cell were selected and formed into a specialist team. Cases are pursued across state lines: the arrests reported in 2024 were made in several states.

Cyber fraud is a financial-crime problem before it is a technical one — it turns on tracing money and freezing accounts quickly. It is worth noting that Choubey had earlier commanded the Economic Offences Wing in Mumbai as Joint Commissioner of Police.

At the September 2024 town hall the commissionerate reported 216 cyber offences registered that year, 72 people arrested across the country, more than ₹2.5 crore refunded to victims and ₹27 crore of fraudulent proceeds placed on lien. Reported scam patterns included digital-arrest fraud, impersonation of narcotics officials, share-market investment fraud and online task fraud.

Sources: The Free Press Journal and Punekar News, 5 September 2024; Pune Pulse, on the Special 108 team.

A programme of congestion identification and enforcement across the commissionerate, with a specific ground-level intervention in the Hinjawadi information-technology corridor conducted alongside the citizens who had petitioned for it.

Hinjawadi concentrates a very large daily commute into a road network that was not built for it. The delays are an economic problem for the area and a safety problem on its approaches, and they had become the subject of a public campaign.

Twenty-six congestion points were identified across the city. In the Hinjawadi corridor, the Commissioner directed Additional Commissioner Sarang Awhad to carry out an on-ground assessment together with the traffic police and members of the #UnclogHinjawadiITPark campaign. The survey covered ten locations including the Wakad–Hinjawadi bridge, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Chowk, Bhujbal Chowk, Dange Chowk, the Missing Link Road and the Kala Khadak signal.

Almost none of the remedies lie with the police. They involve the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority, the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation and the Public Works Department, which is why the work took the form of joint survey and recommendation rather than unilateral action.

Ten congestion hotspots were identified across Hinjawadi, Maan and Wakad. Recommendations reported include regulating traffic at Jambhulkar Chowk and the Indian Oil petrol pump junction, barricading at the Shell petrol pump square, and reviewing flow near the Mindtree junction; making the Wakad–Hinjawadi bridge one-way at certain hours was reported as under consideration. Enforcement figures reported for 2024 across the commissionerate were 25,000 signal-jumping cases, 12,000 rash-driving cases and 84,000 obstruction cases.

Sources: The Free Press Journal, 5 September 2024 and 2025; Pune Pulse and The Bridge Chronicle, 2025.

A set of measures directed at the working conditions of police personnel rather than at policing outcomes, together with a reorganisation of how specialist branches present themselves.

Police work in a commissionerate of this size is shift-based, understaffed relative to sanctioned need, and physically demanding. Welfare provisions are among the few levers a commissioner holds directly.

Reported measures include a birthday holiday for police personnel, health camps and job fairs. A dedicated hospital for police was set up at the Kaveri Nagar Police Line. In August 2026 the Special Branch office was renovated and a dress code introduced — white shirt and black trousers for officers; light blue shirt, grey trousers and a coat bearing the commissionerate logo for personnel — described as a measure of discipline, uniformity and professionalism.

The Special Branch handles intelligence and verification work and is largely invisible to the public; the changes were internal in the first instance, aimed at how the branch operates and presents itself.

On the occasion of the renovation, the Commissioner is reported to have directed personnel to work efficiently and with dedication so as to provide citizens with more accessible, transparent and prompt services. Reporting does not attach a measured outcome to these welfare measures, and none is asserted here.

Sources: Punekar News and Indian Masterminds, 17 December 2024; The Free Press Journal, 5 August 2026.