Major Police Transfers Announced Ahead of West Bengal Assembly Elections

Kolakata: Ahead of the upcoming West Bengal Assembly elections, the state government has announced a significant reshuffle in the police department.

According to a notification issued by the West Bengal Police Directorate, 26 senior police officers from both the Indian Police Service (IPS) and West Bengal Police Service (WBPS) have been transferred.

Out of these, 23 officers belong to the IPS, while the remaining are from the state police service.

The transferred officers include three at the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) rank, six at the Superintendent, Deputy Commissioner, or Commandant level, and the rest are at the Additional Superintendent rank.

The key change is in the Midnapore range, where the current DIG, Anup Jaiswal, has been moved to the position of DIG of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). Arijit Sinha has replaced Jaiswal as the DIG of the Midnapore range.

Notably, Midnapore is the home district of Suvendu Adhikari, the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, and falls under the jurisdiction of this police range.

Additionally, Srihari Pandey, Superintendent of Police in Kalimpong, has been promoted to DIG of the Intelligence Branch for North Bengal.

The state government has described these transfers as routine and stated they were made in the public interest.

There has been no change in the current district police superintendent positions.

In recent months, in view of the important assembly elections scheduled later this year, several transfers and reshuffles of senior police officers have taken place. Changes have also been made among junior officers such as Deputy Superintendents of Police, Sub-Divisional Police Officers, Inspectors, and Sub-Inspectors.

These transfers cover the state police, Kolkata Police, and other police commissionerates within West Bengal.