Howrah clashes lead to CP transfer: Praveen Tripathy & Swati Bhangalia new district police chiefs

With protesters and police clashing in the Howrah area for the second day over suspended Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Nupur Sharma’s remarks on Prophet Muhammad, the Bengal government today transferred Howrah Police commissioner C Sudhakar. In his place, Praveen Kumar Tripathy was made the new Howrah city police chief. Tripathy has been additional CP in Kolkata Police.

Earlier today, Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee took to Twitter to ask why people should suffer for “sins” committed by the BJP and added that some political parties want to engineer clashes and riots. She said strict action will be taken by the government in this respect.

Within hours, Bengal BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar was held by the police for trying to go to Howrah, and taken to Lalbazar, the Kolkata Police headquarters. The police officers in charge of Howrah were also transferred out. The rural chief of Howrah Police, Soumya Roy, has also been transferred out. The new chief in his place is Swati Bhangaliya, who was deputy commissioner (south-west) in Kolkata Police. Soumya Roy has now been posted as DCP (south-west) and C Sudhakar has been sent as joint commissioner in Kolkata Police.