Kolkata, Mar 17: The Election Commission today selected Ranjit Kumar Pachnanda as the new Commissioner of Kolkata Police from a list of three IPS officers and referred his name to the West Bengal government.
The move comes a day after the EC directed the state government to replace the incumbent officer from the post as his tenure had crossed three years.
"The Election Commission has considered the three-member panel of IPS officers sent to it by the state government on direction and selected the name of R K Pachnanda as the city police Commissioner," additional chief electoral officer N K Sahana said here today.
The EC decision in this regard has been referred to the state chief secretary Samar Ghosh, Sahana said.
An official announcement to this effect by the state government is pending.
Last night, the Election Commission had sent a letter to chief secretary Samar Ghosh stating that since Chakrabarti had completed more than three years in office, he would need to be replaced. Chakrabarti had touched the three-year-mark in October last year.
The letter asked the state government to forward a list of names of officers of the rank of additional director-general of police. The poll panel will pick one officer to replace Chakrabarti.
Ghosh, who had to comply with the commission's directives as the administration works under the poll panel from the time the model code of conduct comes into effect, forwarded this list to the commission this afternoon. “The commission had asked for a panel. I have responded,” Ghosh said today.
The transfer should have been carried out before the poll process began. “So far, this rule has been applied to officers of the rank of inspector-general and below till sub-inspector,” chief electoral officer Sunil Gupta said.
“It has never been applied to the police commissioner of Calcutta, who is in any case senior to an IG, being of the rank of an additional director-general of police. But in this case, the poll panel has chosen to interpret Calcutta as a district and so the job executed by the commissioner becomes akin to the work done by a district SP. The duties and responsibilities are being considered, not the rank,” Gupta added.
In an explanation why Chakrabarti had not been removed so far, Ghosh told the commission that since the poll panel rules stated that only officers of the rank of inspector general of police and below need to be transferred, Chakrabarti had continued in his post.
Chakrabarti also questioned the applicability of the rule to his post. “My understanding so far has been that the condition about serving for three years or more applies up to inspectors-general and not to officers above,” Chakrabarti told The Telegraph. “I have never been consulted on this issue by the state government and neither have I ever enquired about it. Such a move is only prompted when there is a specific complaint about partiality but that's not the case here. I really have nothing to say.”
Asked if the commission was acting on the basis of any complaint against Chakrabarti, who is known to be close to the current dispensation, Gupta said: “Not to my knowledge.”
Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee has often made remarks against Chakrabarti in public but never lodged any official complaint against him.
It is learnt that the panel of names of police officers forwarded to the commission includes those of Jogesh Chatterjee (director, fire services), V.V. Thambi (chairman, police recruitment board), B.D. Sharma (ADG, correctional services), Pachnanda, Raj Kanojia (ADG, CID), Banibrata Basu (ADG, IB), A.K. Maliwal (director, security) and Surajit Kar Purkayastha (ADG, law and order).
Gupta defended the commission's right to pick a commissioner of police, saying the Representation of the People Act, 1951, gave the poll panel such power.
