In a sudden change of the top police brass in the city, the State government on Monday replaced Bangalore Police Commissioner Raghavendra H. Auradkar with M.N. Reddi, who was Additional Director-General of Police (Law and Order).
The transfers come in the wake of recent protests against the way the police handled the cases of crimes against women. Criticism of the police also figured in the legislature, causing the government much embarrassment.
Mr. Auradkar will now head Karnataka State Reserve Police and H.C. Kishore Chandra replaces Mr. Reddi as ADGP (Law and Order).
Mr. Reddi took charge on Monday evening. Bangalore Additional Commissioner (Law and Order) Kamal Pant has been replaced by Alok Kumar, who was Inspector-General of Police (Grievances and Human Rights). Mr. Pant will take over from Mr. Alok Kumar. It is learnt that the transfers were not placed before the Police Establishment Board (PEB).
Under the Karnataka Police Act, the minimum tenure is one year, and in Mr. Auradkar’s case, he has served as Police Commissioner for one year and 20 days.
L.R. Pachau, Director-General and Inspector-General of Police, who also heads the PEB, only said: “It was the State government’s call.”
Chief Secretary Kaushik Mukherjee told The Hindu that there was no time to place the proposal before the PEB.
However, he added that all members of PEB were taken into confidence over the transfers.
Meanwhile, Home Minister K.J. George told the Legislative Council that the government was not interfering in transfers of lower-rank police officials.
However, he added that the Chief Minister and the Home Ministry will have to intervene when senior officials were seen failing to discharge their duties competently.
On Monday, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah informed the legislature that the government was planning to amend the Goonda Act and book the accused in the recent crimes against women and children under the Act.
In other developments, Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Kimmane Ratnakar met with parents of the private school where a six-year-old girl was raped recently and promised that the government would soon come out with safety guidelines for private schools, after consultation with all stakeholders.
