IPS officer Rajeev Kumar appointed as ADG of criminal investigation department

Kolkata: Senior IPS officer Rajeev Kumar, who came under the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) 's scanner for his suspected role in tampering evidence in the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam and also faced its grilling for five days in Shillong, was transferred by the Mamata Banerjee government on Tuesday from the Kolkata Police Commissioner's post as his term got over.

The notification of his transfer was issued in the morning. Kumar has been appointed as the additional director general (ADG) of the criminal investigation department (CID) where he served in the past also.

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) government's move came after the Election Commission (EC)'s letter to transfer the bureaucrats, who held same positions for the last three years, ahead of the Lok Sabha Elections. It may be noted that Kumar was on leave for the day when the full bench of the EC was in the city last month to hold a meeting with the administration officials to supervise preparations.

Anuj Sharma, an IPS officer of 1991 batch, who was the ADG (Law & Order), has replaced Kumar as the new Kolkata Police Commissioner. This is the second time Kumar, the 1989-batch IPS officer, faced transfer from the city top cop's post ahead of the polls in the past three years.

Ahead of the last Assembly Elections in 2016 Kumar was removed by the EC in April as the Kolkata Police chief following several complaints of phone tapping by the opposition parties including the BJP. Kumar had then become the target of the BJP after two special branch personnel allegedly offered a bribe to its national secretary Rahul Sinha for cattle-smuggling across the Indo-Bangladesh border.

After Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee came to power for the second time with a thumping majority, she, however, reinstated Kumar in May in place of his superior Soumen Mitra, also an ADG rank IPS officer of 1988 batch, who was made the police commissioner by the EC.