Fulfilling one of its key promises made to the protesting doctors during their meeting with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday, the West Bengal government has transferred Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal and replaced him with Manoj Kumar Verma.
Manoj Kumar Verma, a 1998-batch officer, held the post of Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) to which he was appointed in January this year, replacing Jawed Shamim, who was seen as one of the frontrunners for the Kolkata Police Commissioner’s Post. Mr Shamim will now be replacing Mr Verma.
Vineet Goyal, who is a 1994-batch officer and was the Kolkata Police Commissioner since December 2021, will be assuming charge as the Additional Director General of Police and Inspector General of Police (Special Task Force).
The transfers and appointments were announced in a notification on Tuesday afternoon and included the names of four other police officers as well. Among them was Deputy Commissioner, North Division – where the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital is located – Abhishek Gupta, who has been replaced by Dipak Sarkar. The parents of the doctor who was raped and murdered at the hospital on August 9 had alleged that Mr Gupta had offered them money.
Doctors, who have been protesting since the gruesome crime came to light, finally met Chief Minister Banerjee on Monday after talks fell through several times, over a demand for live streaming of the meeting. The West Bengal government had termed Monday’s invitation its “fifth and final” invite.