The Election Commission of India (ECI) has directed the West Bengal Government to appoint Sanjay Mukherjee as the new state Director General of Police (DGP). The 1989-batch IPS officer’s name was picked from a list of three sent by the state government.
With this, Vivek Sahay – who was given the charge of DGP as the seniormost officer – will have served the post for the shortest tenure (24 hours) in the state. The ECI on Monday removed controversial West Bengal police chief Rajeev Kumar just 48 hours after the announcement of the Lok Sabha polls. Earlier, he was removed from the post of Kolkata police commissioner ahead of the 2016 Assembly elections.
In its letter to the state chief secretary, the ECI wrote, “…the Commission has approved the name of Shri Sanjay Mukherjee, IPS (1989)…for the post of Director General and Inspector General of Police, West Bengal… Kindly ensure immediate compliance and confirm the same latest by 5 pm today.”
As per the order announcing the removal of Rajeev Kumar, his charge was to be “given to the next senior officer in the Police Headquarters till posting of new Director General & Inspector General of Police, West Bengal” and a list of three names were to be sent to the ECI for the DGP posting.
Accordingly, the state government gave the charge to seniormost IPS officer Vivek Sahay and sent a list of three names to the ECI for appointment. Besides Sahay and Sanjay Mukherjee, this included the name of senior officer Rajesh Kumar.
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