Election Commission appoints Sanjay Mukherjee as new DGP of West Bengal
Synopsis
IPS officer Sanjay Mukherjee has been appointed the new West Bengal Director-General of Police (DGP) by the Election Commission of India (ECI), a day after the election body transferred the State’s current DGP Rajeev Kumar.
A day after appointing IPS officer Vivek Sahay as the next Director General of Police for West Bengal, the Election Commission of Indian on Tuesday appointed Sanjay Mukherjee as the new DGP of the state. He is a 1989 batch IPS officer. In November 2017, he was appointed as the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) chief. He was earlier posted as the director (security) of the West Bengal police in the rank of the additional director general of police (ADG).
In a memo to the State Chief Secretary, ECI secretary Rakesh Kumar said that the Commission approved Mukherjee’s name for the post of DGP and directed the Chief Secretary to ensure immediate compliance and confirm the same by 5 p.m.
On Monday, the commission appointed Vivek Sahay as the new DGP, hours after it removed Rajeev Kumar from the post. Vivek Sahay, a 1988-batch IPS officer, previously served as the Director General and Commandant General of Home Guards.
Rajeev Kumar, who was appointed as the DGP last December, was reassigned to the information and technology department, a role unrelated to election duties. Rajeev Kumar's transfer was decided upon after he was previously barred from actively managing the elections for the assembly in 2016 and the Lok Sabha in 2019.
Additionally, Sahay had previously faced suspension by the EC in March 2021 during his tenure as the director of security. This action was taken following an incident during which Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee sustained injuries in Nandigram during the 2021 state assembly elections.
The reshuffle in the State’s top police establishment was done days after the notification for general elections. Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the ECI on Monday ordered the removal of home secretaries of six states, West Bengal's director general of police (DGP), and the secretary of the general administrative departments of Mizoram and Himachal Pradesh.
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