Bengaluru: The process of effecting sudden removal of top city police officers from highly sensitive posts continued on Tuesday.
Additional Commissioner of Police (East) Hemanth Nimbalkar has been transferred on Tuesday. Interestingly, Nimbalkar is yet to receive a posting giving the impression that the transfer was done abruptly.
The transfer comes a day after Praveen Sood was shifted out of the city Police Commissioner’s post.
Nimbalkar and Sood had taken charge of their posts just seven months ago on January 1. While there has been speculation over such sudden high-profile transfers, even senior officials are not clear on the exact reasons that could have triggered it.
Seemant Kumar Singh, Inspector-General of Central Range, is Bengaluru’s new Additional Commissioner of Police (East). Inspector-General Police (State Intelligence Bureau) Amrit Paul replaces Singh.
Sources within the police said the transfers, this close to the elections, have led to speculation especially as both the officers served in their posts for just seven months.
A senior official said that all the officers transferred were appointed by former Home Minister and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president G. Parameshwara. “As the Home portfolio is now with the Chief Minister, this may be a signal that he is hand-picking new top officers,” he added.
Sood, too, was moved as ADGP, Communication Logistics and Modernisation, which is considered a relatively low-profile, non-executive posting. Even though Mr. Sood was expected to be promoted to the rank of DGP on October 31, it is still not clear why he was transferred three months in advance.
Deputy Inspector-General of Police (CID) M.N. Nagaraj has been posted as Commissioner of Police, Hubballi-Dharwad.
