BHUBANESWAR: Days after the alleged custodial torture of an Army officer and his fiancée at Bharatpur police station, the state government transferred 50 IPS officers, including Bhubaneswar police commissioner Sanjeeb Panda and DCP Prateek Singh, in a major reshuffle on Sunday.
According to the home department order, S Dev Datta Singh has been appointed as the new police commissioner of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack.
Puri SP Pinak Mishra and Ganjam SP Jagmohan Meena have been posted as new DCPs of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, respectively.
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). Angul SP Uma Shankar Dash has become the new additional commissioner of police, Bhubaneswar-Cuttack.
ADG crime branch Arun Bothra, who was supervising the probe in the high profile Bharatpur case, has been posted as ADG railways and coastal security. Vinaytosh Misra, director, state crime records bureau (SCRB), replaced Bothra as the crime branch ADG.
While the govt did not cite reason for the rejig, 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. The reshuffle, the first major one by the newly elected BJP govt, also saw appointment of SPs in at least 22 of the 30 districts.
Director intelligence Saumendra Priyadarsi has been posted as ADG modernisation. In the wake of the Bharatpur incident, the Orissa high court had expressed displeasure with the modernisation wing of
Odisha police due to the absence of CCTV cameras at the concerned station. R P Koche, who was ADG (special armed police), has been appointed as director intelligence. J N Pankaj, who held the post of IG (EOW & STF), has been appointed as IG (operations). IG intelligence Anup Sahoo has been posted as IG training and BPSPA.
DG-ranked officer Arun Ray, who was director printing press, has been appointed director prisons. S M Narvane, who was OSD, home department, will replace Ray.
Saravana Vivek M, who was removed as SP Berhampur by the ECI ahead of the elections, has been reinstated in the same position. Jajpur SP Vinit Agrawal has been appointed as SP, Puri, while Balasore SP Sagarika Nath has been posted as Khurda SP. Two days after violence erupted in Bhadrak, district SP Varun Guntupalli has been shifted to Mayurbhanj with Dhenkanal SP Madkar Sandeep Sampat replacing him.
