The West Bengal government has reinstated former Kolkata Commissioner of Police Rajeev Kumar and 10 other Indian Police Service officers transferred by the Election Commission during the Lok Sabha elections, PTI reported on Sunday. Kumar is back as the additional director general of the state Criminal Investigation Department.

The state government, which took the decision immediately after the Model Code of Conduct ceased to operate in the state, also reinstated Kolkata Commissioner of Police Anuj Sharma to his post. However, Rajesh Kumar, who the poll panel had appointed to replace Sharma, is yet to be assigned a new post.

Devendra Prakash Singh, the deputy inspector general of Midnapore Range, was appointed the police commissioner of Barrackpore. He replaces Sunil Kumar Choudhary.

The Election Commission had transferred the police officers following violence in Kolkata during Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah’s rally on May 15. A statue of 19th-century reformer Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was vandalised during the violence.

Rajeev Kumar was asked to report to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs after being relieved of his duties. The poll panel had also removed state Principal Secretary (Home Affairs) Atri Bhattacharyya “for having interfered in the process of conducting the election” and asked Chief Secretary Malay Kumar De to take over his duties. It is not clear if Bhattacharyya has been reinstated.

Saradha scam investigation

Rajeev Kumar has been accused of tampering with evidence in the Saradha scam. The Central Bureau of Investigation on Sunday issued a lookout notice against the police officer to prevent him from leaving the country. It also visited Kumar’s home in Kolkata’s Park Street area to issue him summons for interrogation.

After not finding him there, the investigating agency’s officers went to the office of the deputy commissioner of police and instructed Kumar to appear at the CBI office in the city’s Salt Lake locality on Monday.

The CBI’s action came two days after the Supreme Court refused to entertain Kumar’s plea seeking protection from arrest.