After more than a month of protests over the rape-and-murder of a junior doctor at R G Kar Medical College and Hospital, the West Bengal government named Manoj Kumar Verma as the new Kolkata Police Commissioner.
Verma replaces Vineet Kumar Goyal, who has been transferred and posted as ADG and IGP, Special Task Force, West Bengal.
The doctors had been demanding Goyal's resignation over his handling of the vandalism at RG Kar Hospital during a protest march on August 14. He was accused of mismanaging the situation and also received political backlash.
Mamata Banerjee, after a meeting with the doctors, announced on Monday midnight that ex-Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal, Director of Medical Education (DME) Kaustav Nayek, and north Kolkata Deputy Commissioner Abhishek Gupta, and Director of health services Debashish Haldar would be removed from their respective posts.
Abhishek Gupta has been transferred to the post of Commanding Officer, Eastern Frontier Rifles, 2nd Battalion.
According to a notification by the state's Health and Family Welfare department on Tuesday, Dr Kaustav Nayak has now been appointed as the Director of Institute of Health and Family Welfare and Debashish Halder has been appointed as the OSD, Public Health at Swasthya Bhawan.
Who is IPS Manoj Kumar Verma?
IPS Verma is an officer of the 1998 batch. He was the ADG and IGP (Law & Order) in his last assignment in the West Bengal Police. He originally belongs to Rajasthan. IPS Manoj has also served as the Barrackpore Police Commissioner and additional director at the Directorate of Security. He also held significant positions such as IGP of Darjeeling and Superintendent of Police in West Midnapore.
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