Commodore Esala Teleni (born circa 1958[1] - died 28 February 2020[2]) was a Fijian naval officer, who served the military-backed interim government as Commissioner of the Fiji Police Force from 1 July 2007 to mid-2010.
Teleni had been strident in his repeated calls for the government of Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase to resign, and on 1 November 2006 openly flouted government and police directives by ordering the seizure of a shipment of seven tons of ammunition, which Police Commissioner Andrew Hughes had refused to release.
On 17 February 2009, Commissioner Teleni controversially made comments to senior Indo-Fijian police officers, most of whom were Hindu or Muslim, issuing them with an ultimatum to support his Christian crusade against crime or to leave the force, which caused various organizations and political parties to demand his immediate removal.
He was dismissed in November 2014 following allegations of bribery,[3] but was subsequently appointed Special Adviser to the Pacific Islands Development Forum.
He is chiefly remembered outside Fiji for a cowardly stamp on Wales’s captain David Pickering’s head during an international between the two nations in May 1986.