E-Paper
Election Commission appoints Sanjay Mukherjee as the new DGP of West Bengal
The Election Commission on Tuesday removed Vivek Sahay as West Bengal DGP, less than 24 hours after naming him for the post and appointed Sanjay Mukherjee
The Election Commission of India on Tuesday replaced Vivek Sahay with Sanjay Mukherjee as the new director general of police of West Bengal, officials in the state said.
Mukherjee is a 1989-batch IPS officer. His father, Arun Prasad Mukherjee, who died in 2020, was a decorated IPS officer who served as DGP West Bengal, director CBI and, post retirement, adviser to Union home minister Indrajit Gupta and governor of Mizoram.
A 1988-batch IPS officer Vivek Sahay, who was serving as director general (home guards), was appointed as the new DGP on Monday afternoon after Rajeev Kumar, who was appointed by the state government in December last year, was removal from the post by EC.
On Monday, the poll panel asked the state chief secretary to provide a list of three eligible officers. The state sent the names of Sahay, Mukherjee and Rajesh Kumar.
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The EC selected Sahay and his name was announced on Monday afternoon. His appointment came into effect immediately, chief secretary, B P Gopalika, wrote in an official order.
During the 2021 assembly polls, when Sahay was in charge of chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s security, the ECI suspended him following an incident in which she suffered injury in her left leg during a campaign at Nandigram in East Midnapore. Banerjee alleged it was a “planned attack.”
Sahay was reinstated to the post after the elections.
A senior state government official said on condition of anonymity that the EC probably replaced Sahay because he is supposed to retire in May when the seven-phase polls will be on.
Rajeev Kumar served as commissioner of Kolkata Police from February 2016 to February 2019. He was removed from the post in April 2016 by EC because of the assembly elections. The government reinstated him in May 2016.
The state government transferred Rajeev Kumar to the criminal investigation department (CID) of the Bengal Police as additional director general before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
