West Bengal Reshuffles 28 IPS Officers in Major Police Administration Overhaul

The West Bengal government has reshuffled 28 IPS officers in one of the larger rounds of police administration changes in the state this year, touching leadership posts at the state police headquarters as well as Kolkata Police. Natarajan Ramesh Babu has been appointed Director General and Inspector General of Police for the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), and will continue to hold additional charge as DG, Correctional Services. Supratim Sarkar moves from Additional Director General (ADG), CID/Intelligence Branch, to ADG, Telecommunications. Among the other senior moves, K Jayaraman shifts from ADG, North Bengal Region, to Director, Directorate of Economic Offences, while Tripurari Atharv, currently Police Commissioner of Bidhannagar, has been posted as ADG, Traffic and Road Safety. Anand Kumar takes over as ADG and Inspector General of Police for the Western Zone, and Vishal Garg has been assigned as ADG and IGP, Intelligence Branch. Further changes include Praveen Kumar Tripathi, posted as Inspector General, Home Guards; Sukesh Kumar Jain, as Inspector General of Police, North Bengal Region; and Sudhir Kumar Neelakantham, as Inspector General, Special Task Force (STF). Rathod Amitkumar Bharat has been posted as Police Commissioner, Bidhannagar, a Deputy Inspector General-rank post, while David Ivan Lepcha becomes Deputy Inspector General, Raiganj Range. VSR Anantanag continues as Joint Commissioner of Police (Administration), Kolkata, while also taking additional charge as Joint CP, STF, and Dinesh Kumar has been posted as Deputy Inspector General, Barasat Range, with additional charge of DIG, STF. At the Kolkata Police level, Pradeep Kumar Yadav takes over as Deputy Commissioner, Cyber, while Arindam Sarkar becomes DC, Eastern Division, and Sparsh Nilangika is posted as DC, Enforcement Branch. Manish Joshi moves from DC, Traffic, to Superintendent of Police, Cooch Behar, and Amlan Kusum Ghosh continues as DC North at the Howrah Police Commissionerate. Yeilwad Shrikant Jagannathrao has been appointed SP, Darjeeling, and Pratiksha Jharkharia becomes DC, 1st Battalion, Kolkata Armed Police. Rounding out the list, Jaspreet Singh has been posted as SP, Central Crime Wing, Siddharth Dhapola as SP, STF, and Rajiv Kumar as DC, STF, Kolkata, completing a reshuffle that spans postings from Kolkata's city police divisions to district and range-level charges across the state. The transfers were ordered by the West Bengal government and take immediate effect.