Bengal appoints Rajeev Kumar as new DGP, IGP

The West Bengal government on Wednesday appointed senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Rajeev Kumar, who is considered to be close to chief minister Mamata Banerjee, as the state’s director general and inspector general of police (DGP and IGP), a senior officer from the home department said.

Kumar’s appointment came after Manok Malaviya retired during the day.

“A notification issued by the state home department on Wednesday said that Kumar, a 1989-batch IPS officer, will hold the charge of DGP and IGP of West Bengal, until further orders. Manoj Malaviya, the present DGP, retired on Wednesday,” the senior officer said, wishing not to be named.

Kumar is currently the principal secretary of the Information Technology and Electronics department. He earlier served as Kolkata Police commissioner and also headed the Crime Investigation Department and state police’s Special Task Force.

In February 2019, Banerjee sat on a two-day dharna after a team of officers from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) visited the IPS officer’s house to question him in connection with chit fund cases. She called off the demonstration after the Supreme Court granted Kumar protection from arrest.

CBI has accused Kumar of allegedly suppressing and destroying evidence in the investigation of the Saradha scam while leading a Special Investigating Team (SIT) set up by the state government to probe the matter.

The Saradha chit fund scam involves an estimated ₹2,460 crore that was raised from over one million depositors from West Bengal, Assam, Jharkhand, Odisha, and Chhattisgarh.