West Bengal acting DGP is IPS officer for whom Mamata Banerjee sat on dharna in 2019

Rajeev Kumar took charge of the state police force from Manoj Malaviya, who retired on Wednesday.

New acting DGP Rajeev Kumar

Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Rajeev Kumar has become the acting director general of West Bengal Police.

Known to be close to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Rajeev Kumar, a 1989-batch IPS officer, took charge of the state police force from Manoj Malaviya, who retired on Wednesday.

In 2019, when the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) went to Rajeev Kumar’s residence to interrogate him in a chit fund case, Banerjee sat in protest at Esplanade. He was then the police commissioner of the Kolkata Police Commissionerate.

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Rajeev Kumar was also in charge of Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate, Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Special Task Force (STF) and was the secretary of the IT Department.

Meanwhile, Home Secretary Bhagwati Prasad Gopalika, a 1989-cadre IAS officer, is set to take charge as the new chief secretary. Outgoing Chief Secretary H K Dwivedi was given an extension of six months and his tenure will end on January 31. It is not yet known who the new home secretary will be.

Atri Mitra

Atri Mitra is a Special Correspondent of The Indian Express with more than 20 years of experience in reporting from West Bengal, Bihar and the North-East. He has been covering administration and political news for more than ten years and has a keen interest in political development in West Bengal. Atri holds a Master degree in Economics from Rabindrabharati University and Bachelor's degree from Calcutta University. He is also an alumnus of St. Xavier's, Kolkata and Ramakrishna Mission Asrama, Narendrapur. He started his career with leading vernacular daily the Anandabazar Patrika, and worked there for more than fifteen years. He worked as Bihar correspondent for more than three years for Anandabazar Patrika. He covered the 2009 Lok Sabha election and 2010 assembly elections. He also worked with News18-Bangla and covered the Bihar Lok Sabha election in 2019. ... Read More

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