Kolkata, April 11 Just 12 days before the first phase of the two-phase polling in West Bengal on April 23, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday ordered a massive reshuffle in the state, transferring a total of 30 officers from both the West Bengal Police and the Kolkata Police, ranging from deputy inspector general (DIG) rank to inspector levels.
Rupesh Kumar, who was on additional duty as joint commissioner (crime) of Kolkata Police, has been replaced by Soma Das Mitra, who had been serving as the DIG of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of West Bengal Police.
The joint commissioner of police (headquarters) of Kolkata Police, Miraj Khalid, has been replaced by Sudip Sarkar, who was serving as the DIG (personnel) of West Bengal Police.
The joint commissioner (intelligence) of Kolkata Police, Soumya Roy, has been removed and replaced by Debsmita Das, who was serving as the DIG (Special Task Force) of the state police.
In addition, the Commission on Saturday transferred a total of 7 deputy commissioner-level officers, both within Kolkata Police and in other police commissionerates. Manish Joshi has been given the charge in place of the deputy commissioner (Bhangar), replacing Saikat Ghosh.
VSR Anantnag has been given the charge in place of the deputy commissioner (South) of Kolkata Police, replacing Deepak Sarkar.
Prashant Chowdhury, Saikat Ghosh, and Pradeep Kumar Yadav have been assigned the posts of deputy commissioner (East), deputy commissioner (South-East), and deputy commissioner (North) of Kolkata Police, respectively.
Similarly, there have been several changes across different police districts and police commissionerates.
Apart from these senior and mid-level officers, as many as 18 inspector-ranking officers have also been changed by the Commission on Saturday.
The transfer of bureaucrats and police began at midnight on the date of the announcement of the polling dates on March 16, when the Commission replaced both the previous Chief Secretary and the previous state Home Secretary.
Thereafter, the Commission also replaced the state Director General of Police and the Police Commissioner of Kolkata. The Commission also barred their involvement in electoral duties.