Bengal IPS Reshuffle Puts Officer Under ED Scanner Back In Key Field Posting
Bengal IPS Reshuffle Puts Officer Under ED Scanner Back In Key Field Posting Reported By, Last Updated: July 15, 2026, 10:27 IST The posting marks
Bengal IPS Reshuffle Puts Officer Under ED Scanner Back In Key Field Posting Reported By, Last Updated: July 15, 2026, 10:27 IST The posting marks the officer’s return to the same role from which he was shifted during the Assembly elections earlier this year. Rapid Read West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari. (PTI Photo) The West Bengal government’s latest reshuffle of 33 IPS officers has brought renewed attention to the posting of an inspector general-rank officer who remains under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the alleged coal and cattle smuggling cases. In an order issued on Tuesday, the senior officer was posted as inspector general of the North Bengal Range, returning to a key field assignment months after he was shifted out of the same post by the Election Commission during the Assembly elections earlier this year. The officer was also posted to the same position by the Mamata Banerjee government in February this year. Less than two months after the Suvendu Adhikari government assumed office, the officer has now been reinstated to the post, a move that is expected to revive the debate over assigning key field positions to officers facing central agency investigations. News18 reached out to senior officers in the administration to understand the issue. A senior officer said that, in the coal smuggling case, the ED had only issued summonses to around eight senior IPS officers to question them regarding jurisdictional oversight. He was one of them and was questioned about his tenure as police commissioner of Asansol-Durgapur. As the agency has not, so far, converted these interrogations into a formal prosecution complaint naming him as an accused, special PMLA courts have not issued any orders or rulings against him.
However, another senior IPS officer serving in the central government said, “Government can post any officer anywhere it wants. It is the government’s discretionary power. However, there are certain unsaid rules in the system, which say that an officer facing scrutiny by any agency should be kept away from significant postings. But we all know that the same officer was empanelled for central deputation too in 2024." The officer was empanelled to the rank of inspector general in 2024 despite being under the ED and CBI scanner. Service rules and established practice generally discourage the empanelment of officers facing investigations or questioning by central agencies, making both his elevation and latest posting notable within bureaucratic circles. Speaking to News18, Prakash Singh, a retired IPS officer who played a pioneering role in police reforms, said, “The empanelment procedures in this particular case make one curious about the decision. It is actually a curious case. But we do not know how the committee took this call." He further added, “But, about postings, it is generally a government’s discretion." The empanelment procedure contains strict provisions governing the empanelment of any civil service officer who is under investigation. According to an office memorandum issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) in October 2024, titled “Revised Guidelines Regarding Grant of ‘Vigilance Clearance’ to AIS Officers", vigilance clearance shall be decided on a case-by-case basis by the competent authority, keeping in view the sensitivity of the purpose, the gravity of the allegations or charges, and the facts and circumstances. The conditions mentioned in the order include cases in which a “pre-investigation inquiry undertaken by any investigating agency against the officer in a criminal matter remains pending for more than three months" and cases in which “the investigating agency has not been able to complete its investigations and file charges even after a period of two years from the date of initiation of investigation".
The BriefWire