Mamata Banerjee Reinstates Senior IPS Officer Rajeev Kumar As West Bengal DGP

The West Bengal government on July 15 reinstated senior IPS officer Rajeev Kumar as the Director General of Police (DGP) of West Bengal. Mr. Kumar will replace Sanjoy Mukherjee, who was appointed the State’s DGP at the directions of the Election Commission of India during the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls.

Additional Chief Secretary

Mr. Kumar will continue to hold his current post of Additional Chief Secretary in the Department of Information Technology and Electronics. Mr. Mukherjee has been appointed as the new Director General of the State’s Fire and Emergency Services. In the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections on March 18, Vivek Sahay was appointed the DGP of State Police, replacing Mr. Kumar. However, within a day, Mr. Mukherjee was appointed the DGP.

Who is Rajiv Kumar?

Rajeev Kumar PPM IPS (born 30 July 1966) is an Indian police officer and bureaucrat, who is serving as the Director General of West Bengal Police (additional charge), since July 2024. Previously he served in the same post from December 2023 until was removed by Election Commission of India on March 2024. Prior to his office, he is also additional chief secretary of Information Technology of West Bengal Government since 2023.

Several key posts

Considered close to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Mr. Kumar has held several key posts, including Commissioner of Kolkata Police. In February 2019, Ms. Banerjee sat in dharna in Kolkata after a team of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) conducted searches at the residence of Mr. Kumar, when he had been the Commissioner. The Central agency conducted searches in connection with the Saradha Chit fund scam in West Bengal.