Calcutta: An IPS officer who was charge-sheeted by the CBI in the 2007 Nandigram firing case and retired on Monday was reinstated by the Mamata Banerjee government as an officer on special duty from May 1 for two years.

Satyajit Bandyopadhyay, who retired from the service on Monday as an additional commissioner in Calcutta police, is currently on bail. According to a government order issued on April 16, an ex-cadre post has been created to accommodate him as an OSD and executive officer (community policing) in the Calcutta police for two years.

Bandyopadhyay's service extension has come as a surprise as both Mamata Banerjee and Subhendu Adhikari - the Trinamul heavyweights who spearheaded the Nandigram movement - were demanding punishment for all the police officers involved in the 2007 firing.

Last year, after getting concurrence from the Bengal government, the CBI had chargesheeted two IPS officers, including Bandyopadhyay, on charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, attempt to culpable homicide not amounting to murder, voluntarily causing grievous hurt with dangerous weapons and causing disappearance of evidence or providing false information to screen offenders.

The charges attract a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.

Another IPS officer (now retired) whose name had emerged in connection with the Nandigram incident and had faced the CBI's recommendations for disciplinary action is also serving as an OSD in Bengal. Arun Gupta, who was the IG (western zone) in 2007, is currently serving as the OSD and ex-officio DG of correctional services.

There are several other retired IPS officers who have been reinstated after their retirement as OSDs.

The Telegraph had reported in 2013 that the Mamata Banerjee government had sent a letter to the CBI asking to "examine" former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee in connection with the Nandigram firing.

The letter had read: "Why Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who had given instruction to send the police to Nandigram was also not examined?"