Cooch Behar SP removed 48 hours before election, after Mukul Roy openly threatened him

Cooch Behar superintendent of police Abhishek Gupta was on Tuesday removed by the Election Commission of India. The north Bengal constituency will vote in the first phase – on April 11.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Mukul Roy had threatened Gupta on stage in a political meeting in Cooch Behar on April 7. Roy had said, “Open his uniform if you can,” he had asked people. “Tumi koto boro officer ami dekhe nebo,” Roy had threatened Gupta from the political meeting stage. He alleged Gupta was biased and that he was an experienced political leader who was meant to stay in politics for years, and would show his power. State BJP boss Dilip Ghosh justified Roy’s words and added that Gupta was biased in favour of the ruling party.

Trinamool Congress authorities have not taken the sudden transfer of the SP well. Some have said privately that Roy’s threat and the EC acting immediately thereafter was not acceptable. However, no official statement was available yet.

As the SP, Abhishek Gupta, was removed, the new SP Amit Singh, is expected to take charge on Tuesday itself.

On Friday, the EC had replaced police commissioners of Kolkata and Salt Lake – Anuj Sharma and Gyanwant Singh, respectively with new officers. On the same day, two police superintendents – of Birbhum and Diamond Harbour too were replaced. This led chief minister Mamata Banerjee write a strong-worded letter to the EC saying that names of officers in a panel were not even sent for the state government to choose from. The EC authorities replied saying the EC had taken the step in order to conduct free and fair elections.

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