Shankar Bidari

Shankar Mahadev Bidari is an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, who was the Director General and Inspector General of Police (DGP) of the state of Karnataka.

An Indian Police Service officer of the 1978 cohort, he was the Police Commissioner of Bangalore. Bidari comes from Banahatti City in Bagalkot District, Karnataka. He was succeeded as DG & IGP by Abdul Rahman Infant in March 2012. The Karnataka High Court had held the Special Task Force under his command responsible for rape and torture of women. The Karnataka High Court dubbed him worse than Saddam Hussein or Gaddafi for his role as the leader of the Task Force that was responsible for fake encounters, gang-rapes and harassment of tribals.

Family background Shankar Bidari's family has five civil servants from a single family. Bidari comes from a Lingayat family. Bidari's daughter Vijayalakshmi Bidari, IAS undertook the Civil Services Examination in 2001. Her husband Mallikarjuna Prasanna, an IPS officer is a DCP in Mumbai. His son Vijayendra Bidari, an IPS officer is the Deputy Joint Director of CBI of Delhi. His wife Rohini Bhajibhakare, IAS from Solapur is a probationer working as collector in Salem, Tamil Nadu. Shankar Bidari's wife Umadevi, a doctor, is the only non-IAS and non-IPS person in the family.

He referred an appeal to the Supreme Court which gave a judgement exonerating him of allegations, and held that the order of the High Court was not correct. He retired after 34 years of service, in May 2012.