Who is Rajeev Kumar, Bengal CM Mamata’s top cop removed from poll duties by ECI for the 3rd time

The DGP was moved to non-election posts in 2016 & 2019, too. In 2019, Mamata's endorsement of Kumar resulted in standoff between Centre & state in connection with Saradha chit fund scam.

File photo of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee with Rajeev Kumar in Kolkata | ANI

SREYASHI DEY,  The Print, 19 March, 2024, Kolkata: The Election Commission of India (ECI) Monday removed West Bengal’s Director General of Police (DGP) Rajeev Kumar and ordered he be shifted to non-election-related posts with immediate effect. The 1989-batch West Bengal cadre-IPS officer, Kumar was appointed the acting DGP in December 2023. 

IPS Sanjay Mukherjee has been appointed as the new DGP following the reshuffle.

But this isn’t the first time the poll body has barred Rajeev Kumar from dispensing election duties. In the 2016 Vidhan Sabha and the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, he was moved to non-election-related posts. 

Welcoming the ECI action and alleging that Kumar’s proximity to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wouldn’t give a level-playing field to opposition parties, Bengal BJP chief and MP Sukanta Majumdar told ThePrint: “One Rajeev Kumar has been relieved from election duties; there are many smaller Rajeev Kumars in the district police. We would want them to be identified by the ECI and removed as well for free and fair polls.”

Moments after the ECI’s order, Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Kunal Ghosh addressed a news briefing claiming central agencies, like the ECI, are controlled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). “BJP is trying to monitor the functioning and controlling such organisations, including the ECI, and use them.”  

TMC Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien called for a Supreme Court-monitored election.

Kumar, an IIT-Roorkee alumnus and Uttar Pradesh native, distinguished himself early in his career at the National Police Academy. His tenure as a police officer has been marked by both controversy and acclaim.

He began his service as an sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) Chandannagar in Hooghly district, and went on hold posts as Superintendent of Police (SP) Birbhum, Special SP-CID; Deputy Commissioner Central Division; Deputy Inspector General (DIG) CID (operations), Additional Director General (ADG) CID, to name a few. 

He was last posted as the principal secretary I-T, West Bengal government — a post usually “reserved”  for IAS officers. 

Kumar and Saradha chit fund scam

Kumar wasn’t exactly in Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s “good books” immediately as she stormed into power in 2011 overturning the Left regime. 

In 2009, Mamata’s close aide Mukul Roy alleged Kumar was snooping on the TMC chief, who was then the Union Railways minister. 

Following this, Mamata enquired about Kumar before announcing fresh police appointments as she took charge of the Secretariat in 2011. 

Once Kumar was appointed the first commissioner of Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate in 2012, he has been known to enjoy the CM’s confidence. In 2013, when the Saradha chit fund scam broke, Mamata appointed Kumar to head the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the case. 

Kumar arrested Saradha Group chairman Sudipto Sen and his close aide Debjani Mukherjee from a hotel in Kashmir. He also arrested then TMC Rajya Sabha MP Kunal Ghosh in connection with the case. 

Six years later, the CBI interrogated Ghosh and Kumar in Shillong in the same case after which the IPS officer secured anticipatory bail and no coercive action assurance from the Calcutta High Court. 

Mamata Banerjee’s extraordinary endorsement of Kumar in February 2019 triggered a massive standoff between the Centre and state. When a team of the CBI reached Kumar’s official residence for interrogation in the Saradha scam, the officers were detained by the local police.

The CM sat on a sit-in demonstration on the streets of Kolkata and pinned a police medal on Rajeev Kumar in full public view next to the protest stage. 

But the same year, Rajeev Kumar was asked to report to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) after the Election Commission of India removed him from the post of ADG-CID following violence in Kolkata during Amit Shah’s election rally.

‘An efficient officer’

Known to be an efficient officer, senior officers claim Rajeev Kumar has the ability to carry out secret operations — a skill demonstrated when he headed the Special Task Force to reign on the Maoists from 2009 to 2011. 

His investigative prowess and formidable information network played a key role in arresting tribal leader Chhatradhar Mahato, who is now a Trinamool leader. 

In his book ‘Dial D for Don’, former Delhi Police chief Neeraj Kumar praised Kumar’s role as a CID officer in the 2002 American Center attack in Kolkata and the 2001 high-profile kidnapping case of Khadim owner Parthapratim Roy Burman.

Last month, Kumar was in Sandeshkhali monitoring the police action in apprehending local strongman Sheikh Shahjahan and pacifying villagers, who poured out years of complaints against local Trinamool leaders going unheard by the police in the locality. Kumar spent a night on the remote Sundarban island before Shahjahan was apprehended by the police.  

(Edited by Richa Mishra)