BHUBANESWAR: Faced with a huge embarrassment over the recent Bharatpur police station incident where an army officer was allegedly assaulted and his fiancée sexually harassed by cops, the Odisha government on Sunday effected an overhaul of the top IPS ranks, shifting the Twin City commissioner of police Sanjeeb Panda as well as Bhubaneswar DCP Prateek Singh.
Panda was transferred and posted as ADG (Training) and director of Biju Patnaik State Police Academy (BPSPA). He had been appointed as the police commissioner only nine months back.
The government has selected Suresh Dev Datta Singh as the new Twin City police commissioner. Singh was earlier posted as ADG (Operations) and tasked with an important responsibility to curb the Naxal menace in the state.
Prateek Singh has been appointed as the new Cuttack Rural SP and Puri SP Pinak Mishra has replaced him as the new Bhubaneswar DCP.
CID-CB ADG Arun Bothra, who was leading the investigation into the alleged assault on the army officer and his fiancée after the agency took over the case, was also transferred and posted as ADG Railways and Coastal Security. Bothra was relieved from the additional charge of managing director of Capital Region Urban Transport (CRUT) too.
Vinaytosh Mishra replaced Bothra and was appointed as ADG CID-CB. Mishra, earlier Director of State Crime Records Bureau, has now a crucial responsibility at hand as CB has so far made significant progress in the alleged custodial torture case. He will have to ensure that the agency’s probe continues with the same pace and it arrives at a conclusion.
The government has transferred at least 49 IPS officers from top to bottom. Senior most IPS officer and director of Printing, Stationary and Publication Arun Kumar Ray has been posted as DG Prisons and Correctional Services.
The post was lying vacant after DG rank officer AM Prasad of 1989 batch was appointed as special director general of CRPF in New Delhi.
Another DG rank officer SM Narvane, who was OSD in Home department, replaced Ray as the director of Printing, Stationary and Publication. ADG Special Armed Police RP Koche has replaced Saumyendra Kumar Priyadarsi batch as director Intelligence. Priyadarsi was appointed as ADG (Modernisation).
ADG (Headquarters) RK Sharma has been appointed as special secretary in Home department and Santosh Bala posted as director of State Crime Records Bureau (SCRB) and State Forensic Science Laboratory (SFSL).
ADG Modernisation Dayal Gangwar was transferred and posted as ADG (Headquarters). Similarly, ADG of Railways and Coastal Security with additional charge of director SFSL Rajesh Kumar was appointed as ADG SAP.
IG BPSPA, S Shyni, who was handling the additional charge of Crime Against Women and Children’s Wing, has been appointed as the full-time IG of CAW and CW. IG Intelligence Anup Kumar Sahoo has replaced Shyni as IG BPSPA.
Jai Narayan Pankaj was transferred from IG southern range and IG EOW/STF and posted as IG (Operations). DIG rank officers Awinash Kumar and Sarthak Sarangi, who were discharging their duties as in-charge SPs, were posted as DIG SAP and DIG southern range respectively.
DIG rank officer Umashankar Dash is set to return to Commissionerate Police after he was appointed as Additional CP. DIG and in-charge Cuttack DCP Prakash R has been appointed as DIG Crime Branch. On returning from central deputation, Akhilesvar Singh and Parul Gupta were appointed as DIG (Operations) and DIG (Computers) respectively.
Jajpur SP Vinit Agrawal has been made the new Puri SP, Ganjam SP Jagmohan Meena as Cuttack DCP and Balasore SP Sagarika Nath has been posted as Khurda SP.