Senior IPS officer Rajeev Kumar who was removed by Election Commission from the post of Kolkata Police Commissioner on April 12, was today reinstated soon after Mamata Banerjee returned to power.
In an order during the day the state government asked Kumar to take over as Kolkata Police Commissioner and directed Soumen Mitra who was appointed to the post by the Election Commission to take over as ADGP Training in the state police.
The order also directed the present ADG (CID) Ram Phal Pawar to look after the post of ADG, Anti-Corruption Bureau, as additional charge.
Kumar, who was appointed as the city police commissioner in January this year, was removed by the poll panel following complaints against him by major opposition parties in poll-bound West Bengal.
During the assembly elections in West Bengal BJP and Congress had moved the EC seeking removal of Kumar alleging he was close to Banerjee and accused him of "snooping" on opposition leaders, bureaucrats and journalists.
The BJP had complained to the EC after an alleged failed sting operation against the party's national secretary and former state president Rahul Sinha last March. Two Kolkata Police personnel had allegedly tried to bribe Sinha in return for help to smuggle out cows to Bangladesh.
Sinha had alleged that it was a conspiracy by the TMC government to trap BJP leaders in the sting operation before the Assembly polls and demanded a CBI probe.
The EC had removed Kumar from the post of city police commissioner after the first phase of polls and had directed that the then ADG (CID) Soumen Mitra to replace him.
Kumar was asked to take over as ADG, Anti-Corruption Bureau, in the state.
Banerjee had in her public meetings during poll campaign expressed displeasure over many of Mitra's actions during elections in the city.
