The state government today appointed 10 IPS officers in a zone-wise manner to assist the Special Investigating Team (SIT) that was formed by the Calcutta High Court to probe cases of post-poll violence in the state.
Two officers each have been deployed for the five zones namely north, west and south zones of the state as well as the Kolkata Police areas and the headquarters. According to an order issued by the state home department, today, Soma Das Mitra, DIG Railways and Subhankar Bhattacharya, DC RS have been deputed at the Headquarters zone. DP Singh, IGP North Bengal and Praveen Kumar Tripathi, DIG Malda Range have been deputed at the North zone.
The West zone is under Sanjoy Singh, ADG Western zone and BL Mina, IGP Burdwan range. The South Zone has been entrusted to Siddh Nath Gupta, ADG South Bengal and Prasun Bandopadhyay, DIG Barasat range. The zone under the Kolkata Police will be under Tanmay Ray Chaudhuri additional CP-III, Kolkata and Nilanjan Biswas, joint CP, Kolkata.
“The services of the IPS officers are hereby spared, in addition to their normal duties, to assist the SIT constituted by the Hon’ble High Court at Calcutta,” stated the order. On 19 August, the Calcutta High Court had ordered a court-monitored CBI probe into the incidents of post-poll violence. The High Court had also ordered the constitution of the SIT comprising IPS officers Soumen Mitra, Suman Bala Sahoo and Ranbir Kumar to look into such incidents.
The state government had on 1 September moved the Supreme Court challenging the Calcutta High Court’s order directing a CBI probe into the alleged incidents of post-poll violence.