The Election Commission of India on Tuesday appointed Sanjay Mukherjee, a 1989 batch IPS officer,as Bengal’s next director general of police.

Mukherjee is most likely to remain in the post till the end of the ensuing Lok Sabha polls.

The fresh appointment came a day after director general of police (home guard) Vivek Sahay’s name was announced as an interim measure.

The search for a new top cop for the state police was necessitated after the Election Commission removed the acting DGP Rajeev Kumar. He was shifted to his previous posting as an officer on special duty in the rank of an additional secretary in the information technology and electronics department.

“Sahay (a year senior to Kumar) was named in the interim till the state government submitted a fresh panel of candidates,” said a government official. “Since Kumar was removed with immediate effect, the chair could not remain vacant.”

The government had on the same day recommended three names for consideration to the top post.

The three names zrecommended by the government, included Sahay, Mukherjee and Dr Rajesh Kumar, a 1990-batch IPS officer and currently member secretary West Bengal Pollution Control Board.

Though Sahay is the senior-most, the central poll panel opted for Mukherjee as the former is due to retire on May 31, four days before the Lok Sabha poll process ends.

“The Election Commission probably did not want to go through the complications of granting an extension to Sahay. As has been seen in the past, all officers transferred by the central poll panel are reinstated by the state government once the elections are over,” said a senior official.

Kumar had been removed from his post in two previous elections. On April 12, 2016, he was removed as the Calcutta Police Commissioner following complaints from all Opposition parties ahead of the polling day in Calcutta. Before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, he was transferred as additional director general in the state CID by the state government, though after an incident during union Home minister Amit Shah’s rally in North Calcutta he was removed from poll related duties.

In a letter written to all state governments on December 21, 2023, the Election Commission had made it clear that no officer/official against whom a criminal case related to official functioning is pending in any court of law, be associated with/deployed on election related duty.”

The CBI had issued a lookout notice against Kumar for his alleged evidence tampering in the Saradha scam probe.

Mukherjee’s father, Arun Prasad, is a former state director general of police and also former director of CBI. He was appointed as the governor to Mizoram in 1998.