The state government on Saturday night removed Birbhum superintendent of police Nagendra Nath Tripathi from his post and appointed the 2009-batch IPS officer as an officer on special duty (OSD) at the West Bengal Police Directorate, considered a less important post in terms of policing and political impact.

Bhaskar Mukherjee, who is presently serving as SP of Sunderbans police district, will replace Tripathi and Koteswara Rao Nalavath, presently SP of the anti-corruption branch, has been transferred to Mukherjee’s post.

The move came three days after chief minister Mamata Banerjee left the district following a three-day visit.

Sources said Mamata was in Birbhum’s Bolpur for three days, starting January 30, with the aim of observing the political and administrative situation in the district. Tripathi’s transfer is therefore being considered by insiders as an instance of strict surveillance by her government.

According to sources, a section of Visva-Bharati students and teachers had also complained to Mamata during her trip regarding how Birbhum police, during Tripathi’s tenure, did not take action against Visva-Bharati vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty and varsity officials notwithstanding multiple complaints being lodged with the police.

Tripathi, who has recently been promoted to the rank of DIG, took the chair of Birbhum police chief on April 19, 2021 — 10 days prior to Assembly polls in the district. Before that, he was also assigned to monitor the Assembly polls in Nandigram by the EC.

Although a section of police officers claimed that the murder of two Trinamul workers in a crude bomb attack in Birbhum’s Margram on Saturday night triggered the transfer of Tripathi, sources claimed the government was not happy with the law and order situation and policing on the ground in the absence of Birbhum Trinamul president Anubrata Mondal for the past couple of months.

Mondal has been lodged in Asansol jail after being arrested in August last year by the CBI for his alleged involvement in a multi-crore cattle smuggling case.

A source in the Trinamul said that during the three-day trip by the chief minister, several political leaders pointed out the law and order crisis in the district, including lapses in proper monitoring in the proposed Deocha-Pachami coal mine area.

“Many leaders pointed out flaws in policing in the district during her (chief minister’s) stay in Bolpur. It may be the cause of this transfer. In her meeting, she said that she would personally look after everything in the district. However, Saturday’s incident in Margram may have worked as a catalyst to make the transfer process faster,” said a Trinamul leader.

Sources said the chief minister is very concerned about Birbhum — both politically and administratively — in the absence of Anubrata a few months ahead of the panchayat polls and the implementation of her pet project, the Decoha-Pachami Coal Mine in the run-up to the 2024 general elections.

Following Anubrata’s arrest, several factions started flexing their muscles to show strength in their own pockets and Mamata apparently fixed the issue by bringing leaders of different factions under a single umbrella. She reshuffled the Trinamul core committee for Birbhum and included three leaders including Sheikh Kajal, known as a leader of the anti-Anubrata fraction, among the committee.

“She doesn’t want to let the party’s organisation be hampered in a Trinamul stronghold like Birbhum in the absence of Mondal. She certainly knows strict police surveillance is required during this period of void in the leadership. Police surveillance is also required for the successful implementation of the Deocha-Pachami coal mine project before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls,” said a senior official in Nabanna.

Sources said Mamata is eagerly waiting to kickstart the excavation of coal from Deocha Pachami before the Lok Sabha polls next year to showcase it as a success of her government in setting up big industry in the state. Mamata, during her administrative programme on February 1, said that there would be an opportunity for lakhs of jobs once the coal mine starts within two years.

“The work for the first phase is complete and we will complete the rest of the work within two years. Once the project is completed, lakhs of people will get employment,” she said on February 1.

Bhaskar Mukherjee, who has been given the baton of Birbhum police, is known among police officers to be trusted by the state government and has earlier served as SP of East Burdwan.

“He has been chosen for his past performances. However, it will also be a litmus test for him to serve as the Birbhum SP at a critical time when the ruling Trinamul is facing a challenge and gaps in leadership,” said a senior IPS officer.