There is a chill between chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and Director General of Police (DGP) Sanjeev Dayal, and the CM is "annoyed to the core" with him, sources in the police and home department told dna. Fadnavis is irked with Dayal primarily because the police have failed to find activist Govind Pansare's killers. There is another reason besides the Pansare case; Dayal's absence from the inauguration ceremony of the state police games in Mumbai last month, apparently because Dayal does not get along with Mumbai commissioner of police Rakesh Maria. Sources said Fadnavis has been avoiding meeting with Dayal over certain crucial issues of policing due to these two reasons.

Former additional DGP P K Jain, who retired from the force in February 2014, corroborated the news. "A fortnight ago I was told that DGP has been waiting to have a meeting with the CM for a month on certain policing issues. This is something that has never been heard of in the past. However, the buzz is that a lot of senior IPS officers are in waiting to meet the CM-cum-home minister, maybe because of his other commitments," Jain said.

Highly placed sources in the home department, however, called these "rumours" spread by people with "vested interests". A source added, "To the best of my knowledge, DGP and CM have met on several occasions in the past few months. I am, however, not aware of the details of the meetings."

Dayal, who is set to retire in September, is known for working by the book. Sources claim that this has annoyed politicians in the past as well. "He is too honest to be liked by any politician. He would never oblige anyone and only do the right thing," said another officer.

Another section of officials claims that Dayal has his own coterie, because of which there is intense lobbying amongst IPS officers. "His playing favourites with a few officers has become a problem for the home department, which has to do a balancing act," said a senior official.

Earlier this week, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, leader of opposition in the Maharashtra state assembly, speaking during the ongoing budget session, raised a demand for Dayal's removal over the police department's failure in cracking the Pansare murder case. Fadnavis, however, chose to maintain silence on the issue.

Dayal, a 1977 batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, served as Director General of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) before being appointed DGP. He also served several key positions including that of the Mumbai police commissioner.