Ranchi, Feb. 24: The Raghubar Das government today gave Jharkhand its new director-general of police (DGP), replacing Rajeev Kumar with D.K. Pandey, an IPS officer of the 1984 batch (Jharkhand cadre), in a reshuffle laced with political connotations.

The state home department issued a notification vis-à-vis the new appointment in the afternoon after which Pandey, who was on central deputation in Delhi, assumed charge at the state police headquarters in Dhurwa, Ranchi.

Sources said he returned from Delhi yesterday.

Kumar, a 1981-batch IPS who has been at the helm of affairs in the Naxalite-affected state since February 2013 and had quite a successful stint, has been transferred as director-general (training).

'I just took over charge and will try to meet expectations of this state,' the new DGP told The Telegraph.

This is not Pandey's first brush with Jharkhand.

He had earlier served in the state in the capacity of the state's additional director-general (ADG) of police (operations) in 2011-12 and also as head of CRPF.

Outgoing DGP Kumar, who successfully guarded two back-to-back elections (Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha) in 2014, told The Telegraph, 'I have had a very satisfying tenure of two years starting February 2013. Anybody can judge, I have no regrets and have requested the state government to consider my application for central deputation.'

Sources, however, said that Kumar was 'unhappy' with his transfer and had proceeded on a 'long leave'.

It is no secret that the DGP's posting is influenced by political factors with the occupant of the chair changing with the change in the government.

Since coming to power in December 28 last year, the Raghubar Das government has gone into an overdrive to bring about sweeping changes in the administrative and police set-up. After changing the chief secretary, Das engineered major reshuffles in the IAS and IPS circles wherein independent charges have been given to fresh bureaucrats to head the districts as DCs and SPs.

If seen in this context, Kumar's transfer seems to be a part of the usual process and has nothing to be with his performance as there has been a remarkable improvement in the Naxalism scenario in the state in the past two years.

In another shift, 1983-batch IPS officer Ashok Kumar Sinha has been given charge of director-general of police (rail).