The West Bengal government on Tuesday named senior IPS officer Manoj Verma the new Kolkata Police Commissioner, giving in to the demand of junior doctors who had been demanding the ouster of his predecessor, Vineet Goyal, as one of their five conditions to end their cease-work. Junior doctors in Kolkata are on a protest against the rape-murder of one of their colleagues at a state-run city hospital last month.
An IPS (Indian Police Service ) officer of the 1998 batch, Verma was posted as the Additional Director General (ADG), law and order, West Bengal. He has also served at the Commissioner of Barrackpore Police, and in Maoist-affected regions.
Goyal has been transferred and posted as ADG & IGP (Inspector General of Police), STF (Special Task Force), West Bengal. Besides, two senior state health officials—Director of Medical Education (DME) and Director of Health Services (DHS)—were also replaced.
The move came a day after a crucial meeting between chief minister Mamata Banerjee and the doctors who are campaigning against the rape-murder of a 31-year-old trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital last month. Her body was found in the fourth-floor seminar room of the hospital on August 9, a crime that has jolted the nation and sparked massive protests.
According to a notification issued by the government, Dr Swapan Soren was appointed the new DHS, replacing Dr Debashis Halder. The incumbent DME, Dr Kaustav Nayak, was transferred and appointed the Director of Institute of Health and Family Welfare. The new DME would be appointed subsequently, the notification said.
Mamata Announced Removal Of Officers
The new appointments were announced after Banerjee held high-stakes talks with protesting doctors on Monday night. After the meeting, Banerjee announced the removal of the two health officials and the Kolkata Police Commissioner.
“They asked to remove three health officers, I have removed two. We accepted 99 percent (of their) demands. Would request them to rejoin work,” Banerjee said in a midnight address,.
However, the Bengal CM noted that in the wake of the statewide stir and allegations against the Kolkata Police, Goyal himself wanted to step down. “Given the demand of junior doctors, Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Kumar Goyal has said in the meeting that he is ready to resign.”
Goyal took over the top cop responsibility in December 2021. A 1994-batch officer, he is an alumnus of IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) Kharagpur and IIT Kanpur.
Allegations Against Goyal
Following the rape and murder of the medic at the state-run health facility in Kolkata, junior doctors demanded the resignation of Goyal from the Kolkata CP post. He faced sharp criticism for the handling of the August 14 vandalism at the RG Kar Hospital during a midnight protest march by the protesters. He was accused of mismanaging the situation where a mob allegedly stormed the hospital, allegedly for tampering with the evidence of crime.
He had maintained his stand that the police has performed their duty at the level-best in handling the case. However, he had admitted that despite “sufficient security presence”, the police did not expect the protesters to turn violent outside RG Kar Hospital premises in the early hours of August 15, and were initially caught off-guard when a deputy commissioner-ranked officer got injured.
He had said that Kolkata Police had handed over all evidence, including the videography of the post-mortem of the victim to the CBI, which is investigating the case upon orders of the Calcutta High Court. “We are not shielding anyone, and police tried to be as transparent as possible in our probe. We have handed over all evidence related to the case to the CBI. Have faith in the central probe agency,” he had said, responding to criticism.
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