The officer-in-charge of Kalighat police station, which has chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s residence on Harish Chatterjee Street under its jurisdiction, was removed from his post on Saturday, within a week of taking charge.
Goutam Das was transferred after a complaint was raised over a social media post in which the uniformed officer appeared to be aiming a sophisticated firearm. The image showed him seated in the chair of the OC of Kalighat police station, with his right index finger on the trigger. The caption read: “Ready for new assignment...”
Kalighat police station falls within the Bhabanipur Assembly constituency, where Mamata is a candidate.
Chameli Mukherjee, OC of Ultadanga Women’s police station, was appointed in his place following an order issued by Kolkata Police commissioner Ajay Nand. The order, issued “in the interest of public service”, came at 2.13pm, and sources said Mukherjee assumed charge within hours.
Counting of votes in the Assembly elections is scheduled for Monday. While no official reason was cited for the transfer, sources in the state Election Commission said the immediate trigger was a complaint filed on Friday by Jay Prakash Majumdar, Trinamool state vice-president.
In his complaint to the chief election commissioner in Delhi, with copies sent to the Bengal chief electoral officer and the Kolkata Police commissioner, Majumdar referred to the social media post and its caption.
“Mr Goutam Das, who happens to be the present officer in-charge of Kalighat police station, Kolkata, has put up a post on social media (Facebook with ID: facebook.com/share/1Ce6xka9) with his own photograph in police uniform with the tag line: ‘Ready for new assignment’,” Majumdar wrote.
Majumdar said that the photograph was “not only disturbing but also highly objectionable in the eyes of law”, noting that the officer appeared to be holding a sophisticated weapon and aiming it forward.
He also said that following Kolkata Police guidelines on use of social media by personnel, no police officer on duty can take photographs in uniform and post them on social media, adding that similar restrictions exist in other states as well.
He further referred to Government of India protocols on the standard use of social media, stating that they prohibit open exhibition of arms, particularly with threatening captions.
The Trinamool leader raised questions over the weapon seen in the photograph, asking whether such a gun had been allotted to Das and whether he was trained to use it. “... the agenda and tone of his social media post is not only dangerous but also highly controversial as it is conceived as a direct threat to the general public,” the complaint stated.
Das had been posted as OC of Kalighat police station on April 25 after the EC recommended the suspension of the then OC, Utpal Ghosh, over alleged dereliction of duty.
The EC had alleged that Ghosh, who took charge on March 29, failed to maintain law and order when BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari went to file his nomination papers in Alipore in the presence of Union home minister Amit Shah.
Following that episode, apart from the Kalighat OC, the OC of Alipore police station and the additional OC of the same police station were also transferred for alleged lapses in duty during the nomination filing process.
Chameli Mukherjee, who was then additional OC of Alipore police station, has now been appointed OC of Kalighat police station under Saturday’s order.