Already under scanner for his alleged professional bias the Election Commission (EC) finally removed Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajib Kumar on Tuesday.
Not only this in an unprecedented testimony of distrust over the State Government the poll panel of its own accord appointed ADG CID Soumen Mitra as the new police chief of Kolkata. Normal practice is the EC seeks three names from the Government and selects any one from them, experts said.
Bengal is currently in the midst of a six-phase and seven-day poll process. This means that even if Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee comes back to power she will have to continue with Mitra as per a Supreme Court ruling in a Police Establishment Board case, experts in the know of police rules said. Usually Banerjee reinstates the officers removed by the EC in their original posts soon after the elections.
The Commission had been flooded with complaints from the Opposition parties which wanted Kumar transferred for his political prejudice.
“This officer is out and out a Trinamool man. He had plotted a bribery case against me when he sent two junior officials in the guise of cow-traffickers to lure me with money and help them in illegal cow-trafficking. He was the Commissioner of Bidhannagar Police and was investigating the Sharada chit fund case when vital documents were suppressed and went missing. So we had requested the Commission to remove him and we welcome the move,” senior BJP leader Rahul Sinha said.
CPI(M)’s Md Salim demanded more such removals. “We have given more such complaints and want the commission to remove those officers,” he said. The Congress said the RC should not only take notice of biased police officers but also “Chief Electoral Officer Sunil Gupta and Deputy Election Commissioner Sandip Saxena and remove them immediately because they cannot conduct elections in a free and fare manner.”
Welcoming the move, former Kolkata CP Tushar Taluqdar said, “The Commission’s decision is not only unprecedented but it brings shame for the police department, particularly for anyone of that rank. This is unprecedented because never before in the history of Kolkata a Commissioner of Police had been removed unilaterally by the Commission. This not only shows lack of trust against the officer but also the credence the ECI lends to one’s political prejudice on account of his alleged chemistry with a particular party.”