Anuj Sharma takes charge as Kolkata police chief, Rajeev Kumar posted as AGP & IGP, CID

On Tuesday, Additional Director General of West Bengal Police (law and order) Anuj Sharma replaced Rajeev Kumar and has been appointed as the Kolkata Police Commissioner. Sharma, who is a 1991 batch IPS officer, took charge as the Kolkata police chief on Tuesday after orders were issued by the state secretariat Nabanna.

On the other hand, outgoing city police chief Rajeev Kumar, who has been in news for quite sometime now because of a controversy over the CBI questioning him in chit fund scam case, has been posted as ADG (Additional Director General of Police) and IGP (Inspector General of Police) of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

The move comes following an Election Commission directive.

Rajeev Kumar was appointed as the Kolkata police commissioner in May 2016 and will complete his three-year tenure soon.

He was due for transfer ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

However, after the BJP and the Congress accused Kumar of tapping the phones of their leaders, the Election Commission told the state government to replace him during the Assembly elections. He was later reinstated.

If sources are to be believed, the state BJP has been putting pressure on its central leadership to replace a section of IPS officers seen as close to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.