Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar, a cop who came in from the cold

During the three-day dharna that rocked the nation, Rajeev Kumar bagged many accolades from CM Mamata Banerjee

One of the first things on Mamata Banerjee's mind after taking charge as West Bengal chief minister on May 20, 2011, was to shunt out Rajeev Kumar, then joint commissioner Kolkata Police, whose job, by default, involved intercepting telephone calls. That never happened but in eight years, the police officer has come a long way, traversing the ground from a suspect cop to chief ministerial favourite.

It didn’t come easy, say sources. Banerjee's contention was that Kumar was snooping on opposition leaders at the behest of the Left Front, then in the government, and ought to be removed. It took