Damayanti Sen, the IPS officer who shot to fame during the investigation of the Park Street gang-rape case, is returning to Calcutta police after seven years.
Sen, a 1996-batch IPS officer who is now inspector-general of police (administration), will be back in Calcutta police as additional commissioner (III). She was joint commissioner (crime) in the city force before being transferred to Bengal police in 2012.
In February 2012, a 37-year-old woman had alleged that she had been gang-raped inside a moving car on Park Street.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had termed the incident “sajano ghatana (fabricated incident)” but Sen proceeded with the investigation. All three men arrested for the gang rape were convicted.
Within two months of the incident, Sen was shifted from the Calcutta police to the comparatively less important post of deputy inspector general of police (training) in Barrackpore. Thereafter, she was sent to Darjeeling and then to the state CID as deputy inspector general.
The only woman officer to have served as joint commissioner (crime) in Calcutta, Sen replaces Supratim Sarkar as additional commissioner (III).
Sarkar will take over as additional commissioner (IV), replacing Ashok Prasad, who has been posted as inspector general of police, Darjeeling.
In her earlier stint in Calcutta police, Sen was deputy commissioner (north), deputy commissioner (central) and deputy commissioner in charge of the detective department.
Senior officials in the home department said the transfers were “routine”, necessitated by the formation of a pan-Bengal special task force. Till now only the city police had a special task force.
Task force
The pan-Bengal task force will be headed by an officer of the rank of additional director general. Ajay Nand has been posted as inspector general, Nishat Perwez as deputy inspector general and Sunil Yadav as superintendent of police of the task force. The headquarters of the force will be in Calcutta. The four branches will be in Siliguri, Malda, Durgapur and Kharagpur.
