S Radhakrishnan assumes charge of Bharat Petroleum Corp's CMD

S Radhakrishnan today assumed additional charge of Chairman and Managing Director of Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL), the nation's second largest state refiner.

Radhakrishnan was appointed the acting head of BPCL upon current incumbent Ashok Sinha's resignation, a company press statement said.

A Mechanical Engineer from IIT, Chennai and MBA from IIM, Bangalore, Radhakrishnan, 59, is Director (Marketing) in BPCL since November 2002.

Sinha had in May put in his papers apparently after it emerged that the government may deny him an extension.

Sinha, which completed his five-year term on August 18, was eligible for an extension till he attained superannuation in February 2012.

However, the Petroleum Ministry was not inclined to give him an extension like it had previously done in case of Sarthak Behuria of Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Subir Raha of Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and P Banerjee of GAIL.

No reasons have been given for not considering Sinha for an extension.

Sinha is the fourth head of a Navratana oil PSU, to be denied an extension. The oil ministry had in 2006 declined Subir Raha an extension as the Chairman and Managing Director of ONGC and a year later GAIL's Prashanto Banerjee got a similar treatment.

In February this year, Behuria was denied an extension as the chairman of IOC.