EC overrides Bengal’s move to reinstate 15 IPS officers, orders posting to TN, Kerala

Kolkata: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday cancelled the Bengal government’s decision to reinstate a section of IPS officers and ordered the immediate deployment of 15 of them outside the state on election duty.

In a late-night directive, the Commission asked that the officers be posted as election observers in Tamil Nadu and Kerala and join their new assignments without delay. The move came just hours after the state government reinstated them in different roles.

The officers named in the order include Akash Magharia, Alok Rajoria, Amandeep, Abhijit Bandyopadhyay, Bhaskar Mukhopadhyay, C Sudhakar, Dhritiman Sarkar, Indira Mukhopadhyay, Murali Dhar Sharma, Mukesh, Praveen Kumar Tripathi, Priyabrata Roy, Sandeep Karra, Rashid Munir Khan and Waquar Raza.

Among them, Murali Dhar Sharma was serving as Bidhannagar Police Commissioner, while Waquar Raza held the same post in Siliguri. Both had earlier been removed and now figure in the redeployment list.

Sources in Nabanna said most of the officers had not undergone standard training for election observers and were not on the Commission’s official training list. Only Praveen Kumar Tripathi has completed the observer training programme.

However, ECI sources maintained that such training is not mandatory for appointment as an observer.