Soumen Mitra likely to be removed from CP’s post, other changes in offing

According to sources both in Nabanna and Kolkata Police, there is a strong apprehension that Mitra will not continue as the chief of Kolkata Police after the new government is sworn in. Sources also claimed that besides Mitra, some other IPS officers will also be reshuffled.

The question that is doing the rounds among top bureaucrats in the state at present is that who will be Mitra’s replacement. They have also started guessing whether Rajeev Kumar will come back to the post of CP.

There is also apprehension that some senior bureaucrats will also be reshuffled after the new government takes over. Mamata Banerjee has got the information that after the last phase of election ended, some bureaucrats were found to be spreading canards against her government, including those who had received benefits from her. She has taken a strong exception to this and is likely to replace them.

It may be mentioned that Mitra, an IPS officer of the 1988 batch, took over as the Police Commissioner replacing one-batch junior Rajeev Kumar after being directed by the Election Commission (EC). Kumar was brought in as the CP of the city police on January 29 and Mitra, who was then the second man in Kolkata Police after Surojit Kar Purakayastha, was sent to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) as Additional Director General (ADG). EC had brought in Mitra after political parties including BJP and CPI(M) had demanded the removal of Kumar ahead of elections.

Soon after taking charge, Mitra had said: “It’s a challenging time and my main job now is to get through the elections peacefully.”

The city dwellers had witnessed steps that the rank and file of the Kolkata Police had taken on the poll dates — April 21 and 30. Leaders of political parties in the Opposition had praised the role of the police, despite witnessing their highhandedness during the elections on both the dates.

It may be recalled that owner of a renowned sweet meat shop was thrashed by the Deputy Commissioner of the city police’s Detective Department (II), Nagendra Tripathi and the incident had led to an uproar after being telecasted in news channels.

There were also allegations of terrorising electorates when members of a family were heading to polling stations to cast their votes. Medicine shops were forced to close and ambulances were restricted from taking passengers.

The highhandedness of some cops in support of the Central Force jawans was also witnessed in some other parts of the state as well as on the election dates.