Vineet Goyal was not the first Kolkata Police commissioner transferred in an attempt to calm the city’s frayed tempers.

There are several such instances. Some of them:

Ranjit Kumar Pachnanda

Tenure as commissioner: March 17, 2011, to February 14, 2013

Controversy: Pachnanda was removed as the city’s top cop apparently for taking an initiative to arrest Trinamool Congress councillor Mohammad Iqbal, alias Munna, who was an accused in the murder of Tapas Chowdhury, a Calcutta police sub-inspector, in front of Harimohan Ghose College in Garden Reach on February 12, 2013.

The Trinamool leadership had sought the arrest of Mohammad Mukhtar, a CPM leader who had switched to the Congress, in connection with the police officer’s murder. Lalbazar’s refusal to blame the Congress leader for the murder allegedly cost top cop Pachnanda his job.

A section of the police had hailed Pachnanda’s refusal to bow to political pressure. “He did what had to be done as the leader of the force. Unfortunately, that did not go down well with the ruling dispensation,” a retired officer said.

Prasun Mukherjee

Tenure as commissioner: November 30, 2004 to October 17, 2007

Controversy: Mukherjee and four other officers, two of them from the IPS, were accused of pressuring Rizwanur Rahman, a young computer graphics teacher from an underprivileged family, to part with his wife, the daughter of an influential industrialist.

Rahman was found dead on the Patipukur railway tracks on September 21, 2007.

The then chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, announced the transfer of Mukherjee and four others linked to the Rahman case, following widespread public outrage. It came a day after Calcutta High Court ordered a CBI investigation into the Rahman’s death.

Deputy commissioner (headquarters) Gyanwant Singh and deputy commissioner (detective department) Ajoy Kumar were also removed along with Mukherjee.

Back then, Vineet Goyal had replaced Singh as Calcutta’s new deputy commissioner (headquarters).

B.K. Saha

Tenure as commissioner: 1988 to 1992

Controversy: Saha was removed for being endearingly addressed as “Sahada” by Swapan, a dreaded goon, at the Keoratala burning ghat during Satyajit Ray’s funeral on April 24, 1992.

Many dignitaries were present and the officer lost his job as his alleged association with the goon became public knowledge.

Swapan was nicknamed Smashan (crematorium) Swapan because that was the capital of his territory.

And now...

Vineet Goyal

Tenure as commissioner: January 1, 2022, toSeptember 17, 2024

Controversy: Goyal was removed 40 days after a 31-year-old postgraduate trainee was found raped and murdered on duty at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9.

Goyal and his force were accused by protesting junior doctors of tampering with evidence in the wake of the murder and failing to protect RG Kar from vandals who ransacked the hospital on the intervening night of August 14 and 15. He has also been blamed for procedural lapses, now under the scanner in the Supreme Court.

Police commissioner Goyal’s ouster comes 22 days before Durga Puja.

In 2007, commissioner Prasun Mukherjee was removed from his chair on Sashthi, the first day of Durga Puja.