What Led to the Transfer of Police Officers Over Misconduct in Bhopal?

Bhopal, June 2 (NationPress) Following recent incidents within the law enforcement community, major administrative shifts have been implemented among senior police officials, including Pramod Verma, the Chief of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) tasked with probing Minister Vijay Shah's case. Chief Minister Dr. Mohan Yadav has deemed their actions as 'inappropriate' and has accordingly reassigned multiple senior police figures.

The Home Department has issued a transfer order affecting Pramod Verma, who was leading the SIT investigation into Minister Vijay Shah's allegations. Late-night orders from the state home department confirmed that Verma, previously the Inspector General (IG) of the Sagar Range, will now transition to the role of IG for the Jabalpur Range. Taking over his previous position at Sagar is Chandrashekhar Solanki, who was the IG of the Special Armed Forces (SAF) in Indore.

On his social media platform, CM Dr. Mohan Yadav expressed concerns regarding the behavior of the Superintendent of Police from Katni, the Superintendent of Police from Datia, along with the IG and DIG from Chambal Range, labeling it as “inconsistent with public service ethics.”

This led to directives for their immediate reassignment. Those affected include Katni SP Abhijeet Ranjan, Datia SP Virendra Kumar, Chambal Range IG Sushant Kumar Saxena, and DIG Kumar Saurabh.

In a wider restructuring initiative, the Home Department has executed transfer orders for ten IPS officers, including the aforementioned four. New appointments have been made to fill these vacancies.

Abhinav Vishwakarma has been appointed as the new Superintendent of Police for Katni, while Suraj Verma will serve as the Superintendent of Police for Datia. Their predecessors, Abhijeet Ranjan and Virendra Kumar Mishra, have been reassigned to the Police Headquarters in Bhopal as Assistant Inspector Generals. Furthermore, DCP Indore, Abhinav Vishwakarma, has taken over as Katni’s SP, with Suraj Verma stepping in as Datia’s SP.

Additional changes within the police hierarchy have introduced Sachin Atulkar as the new Inspector General of Chambal and Sunil Kumar Jain as the Deputy Inspector General of Chambal, with their predecessors being reassigned to Police Headquarters.

The transfers of Katni and Datia’s SPs followed a reported incident involving a confrontation between Katni SP Abhijeet Ranjan and the husband of a Tehsildar, which gained public attention. In a related incident, a dispute among senior police officials arose during preparations for the inauguration of Datia airport, leading to heated discussions among the SP, IG, and DIG regarding crowd control measures, especially concerning the presence of BJP activists. The Inspector General reportedly criticized the SP’s management of the crowd, which ignited a confrontation that necessitated the Chief Minister’s intervention, resulting in the reassignment of the three involved officers.