Parvinder Singh
Pasricha


Parvinder Singh Pasricha was born on 11 November 1947. He was selected for Indian Police Service, 1970
batch and served for 38 years holding thereby various important position including Additional SP (Crime) in
Thane and SP in Kulaba, Nashik and Amravati. Whereas in Thane he took stringent action again smugglers,
in Amravati he successfully handled the communal riots. Similarly when in 1992-93, Mumbai riots took
place, he played major role in the restoring the confidence of both the communities. He was conferred with
the President’s police medal for distinguished service, and the Indian Police medal for meritorious service.
Pasricha took over as the 30th Police Commissioner of the Mumbai Police in November 2003. Pasricha thus
became the second Sikh officer to head the Mumbai Police Force, the first being A.S. Samra. He succeeded
R.S. Sharma, who went on leave after being questioned by a police team probing a counterfeit stamp paper
racket. On February 3, 2004, Pasricha was transferred to the post of Director General of Police and Managing
Director of the Maharashtra State Police Welfare and Housing Corporation. He was replaced by A.N. Roy.
One unique contribution of S. Pasricha was in the traffic field. He was DC traffic in Mumbai in the 1980s,
when he introduce several schemes to improve traffic management in Mumbai. He also wrote a book on
Road Saftely and Traffic Management. He earned a Ph.D. also in this subject during that period. When in
2008, he was appointed the Chairman of the Management Committee of Sri Hazur Sahib for the celebration
of 300 years of Gurta-gaddi Divas of Sri Guru Granth Sahib, he played a wonderful role in making the
celebrations successful and memorable. The arrangements made for the pilgrims including running of more
trains, operating flights from Delhi and Chandigarh and creating accomodations by putting tents, were all
so impressive that S. Pasricha became a favourite among the Sikhs. So it can be said that he has been a role
model both as an officer and also an organizer of the great Sikh event at Nanded.