(From left) Pankaj Darad and his predecessor Ajay Kr Singh. Pictures by Gautam Dey

Dhanbad, March 7: Tongues have started wagging in the wake of the government?s decision to transfer Dhanbad superintendent of police Pankaj Kumar Darad.

The IPS officer of the Jammu and Kashmir cadre has been marched off to relatively inconsequential Sahebganj after barely nine months in the coal city. He has been replaced by Baljit Singh, the fourth SP to be given charge of the district in the last 20 months.

Darad?s deputation to the state ends in December, which means he will remain SP at Sahebganj for nine more months, provided he is not transferred again.

This, despite director-general of police V.D. Ram stating publicly that SPs should be allowed to complete their two-year term. The DGP in fact patted Darad on the back for his fine performance, recalled senior IPS officers, in November last year and also in January. He was also given charge of Bokaro and asked to defuse tension there following custodial death of a tribal boy.

A senior IPS officer told The Telegraph that ?the transfer sends a completely wrong signal to upright officers?.

During Darad?s tenure, he pointed out, Dhanbad had neither witnessed a serious political crime nor any daring dacoity. Even Maoists spared Dhanbad while running amok in neighbouring districts. The transfer was ?unwarranted? at this juncture, said the dismayed officer, especially since Darad is rated highly as a tough cop.

Officials of Bharat Coking Coal Ltd are shocked. An executive confirmed that coal pilferage had gone down substantially during Darad?s tenure. ?The SP himself was an upright officer and during his tenure, there was excellent understanding and coordination between the district police and the Central Industrial Security Force,? he added.

Coking coal from BCCL, he explained, is transported entirely by railway wagons. But still it is estimated that 300 to 500 trucks move out of Dhanbad every day with ?illegal coal?. Seven thousand trucks would have been required to transport BCCL?s daily production of 70,000 tonnes. The illegal coal being transported out, therefore, is between 3000-5000 tonnes every day. Darad, the spokesman claimed, had made a serious attempt to stop illegal mining of coal.

So who benefits by the departure of Darad? The man on the street does not seem to have too many doubts on this score. ?Everybody knows the SP has been transferred because he would not allow illegal mining of coal,? said an auto-rickshaw driver, Mohammad Iqbal Ansari.

Pramod Singh, a wholesale trader in liquor, conceded that Darad was upright and accessible. The panther mobile and the two-wheeler mobile introduced by Darad had made a wealth of difference, he agreed. Even a housewife, Aarti Chatterjee, with a teenaged daughter in college appeared sorry to see Darad go. ? He made the city safer for young women,? she exclaimed.

While Darad himself refused to comment, policemen believed to be close to him openly claimed that two prominent politicians from the district had asked the SP to go slow on coal smuggling.

But the SP fixed responsibility on both his men and the CISF jawans for illegal mining of coal and smuggling, leading the mafia to seek his ouster. If this section is to be believed, the politicians have been busy collecting money for some time and when the marching orders finally arrived last week, they celebrated openly at both Jharia and Nirsa.

The policemen showed two photographs to buttress their claim. The pictures displayed politicians, coal traders and even journalists sharing drinks and feasting, allegedly to celebrate the SP?s transfer.

Darad himself only said, ?I am happy that I did not tolerate any nonsense.?