Kolkata, Howrah, Salt Lake get new police commissioners ahead of assembly polls

According to an order issued by the state home department, 24 senior IPS and West Bengal Police Service officers were transferred.

New police commissioners were appointed for Kolkata and its adjacent cities of Howrah and Salt Lake on Saturday in a major reshuffle of senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officers ahead of the crucial assembly polls.

Many are crediting Kolkata’s new police commissioner Soumen Mitra for ensuring peaceful polling on Saturday by adopting a ‘model code of operations’ and keeping local goons on a tight leash. (HT Photo)

Soumen Mitra has been appointed the new Commissioner of Police (CP) for Kolkata, and the incumbent CP Anuj Sharma has been shifted to the state Criminal Investigation Department as additional director general of police.

According to an order issued by the state home department, 24 senior IPS and West Bengal Police Service officers were transferred.

Prior to his posting as the city’s police chief, Mitra held the post of Additional Director General of state police (training) He had handled some key posts and cases including the American Centre terror attack in 2002 in Kolkata. He was then the deputy commissioner of the detective department of Kolkata Police.

Earlier in 2016 before the assembly polls, the 1988 batch officer had taken over as the Police Commissioner of Kolkata after the then city police chief Rajeev Kumar was removed by the Election Commission. Later, after the polls, Kumar was reinstated.

Supratim Sarkar who was the additional CP-II of Kolkata will now be posted as the commissioner of Bidhannagar (Salt Lake), a satellite city of Kolkata.

C Sudhakar who was the DIG of Barasat Range in south Bengal has been posted as the commissioner of Howrah. The police commissioner of Barrackpore was also transferred.