The government of Odisha has executed a massive police reshuffle across the state within a week of the harrowing incident of sexual and physical abuse against an army officer and his fiancé by police authorities in Bhubaneshwar. On September 15th, the police personnel deployed at the Bharatpur police station in Bhubaneswar allegedly did not accept the complaint an Army officer and his fiancée wanted to lodge at 2 a.m. Instead, the complainants were allegedly subjected to assault and sexual harassment. The incident triggered nationwide outrage, with the Indian Army taking serious cognisance of it.
As many as 50 IPS officers have been transferred — including Bhubaneshwar’s Police Commissioner Mr. Sanjeeb Panda & DCP Prateek Singh. Mr. Panda, who served as CP only for nine months, has been posted as ADG training and director of the Biju Patnaik State Police Academy (BPSPA), while Prateek Singh has been made SP Cuttack (rural). The reshuffle comes a few days after Chief Minister Mohan Majhi, during a conference of district collectors, had said there must be time-bound transfers and this reshuffle is the first major one by the newly elected BJP government. SPs in at least 22 of the 30 districts were reshuffled.
Mr. S Dev Datta Singh (1998-batch IPS officer) has been appointed the new police commissioner of Bhubaneshwar & Cuttack. Mr. Pinak Mishra (2011 batch), SP of Puri, Mr. Jagmohan Meena (2013 batch), SP of Ganjam, have been posted as new DCPs of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, respectively.
Mr. Uma Shankar Dash, SP of Angul, has become the new additional commissioner of police of Bhubaneswar-Cuttack. ADG crime branch, IPS Arun Bothra (1996 batch), who had been supervising the probe in the high-profile Bharatpur case, has been posted as ADG railways and coastal security. IPS Vinaytosh Misra (1993 batch) replaced Mr. Bothra as the crime branch ADG.
Director, Intelligence, IPS Saumendra Priyadarsi (1995 batch) has been posted as ADG modernisation. IPS R P Koche, who was ADG (special armed police), has been appointed as Director of Intelligence. IPS J N Pankaj, who held the post of IG (EOW & STF), has been appointed as IG (operations). IG intelligence, Mr. Anup Sahoo has been posted as IG training and BPSPA.
DG-ranked IPS officer Arun Ray, who was the director of the printing press, has been appointed director of prisons. IPS S M Narvane, who was OSD, home department, will replace Officer Ray.
Mr. Saravana Vivek M, who was removed from the designation of Berhampur’s SP by the ECI ahead of the elections, has been reinstated in the same position. Jajpur SP, IPS Vinit Agrawal has been appointed as SP of Puri, while Balasore SP, IPS Sagarika Nath has been posted as Khurda SP. Two days after violence erupted in Bhadrak, SP Varun Guntupalli has been shifted to Mayurbhanj with Dhenkanal SP Mr. Madkar Sandeep Sampat replacing him.
Check the official circular here:
