A wiry IPS trainee who had run the fastest among 85 officers to finish an 11km race first at the National Police Academy 25 years ago has hotfooted it to the top job of Calcutta police.

Rajeev Kumar, a 1989-batch IPS officer who will turn 50 on January 31, will take over as police commissioner from 59-year-old Surajit Kar Purkayastha.

Kumar, once the target of Mamata Banerjee's jibes for allegedly snooping on Opposition leaders during the Left Front's stint in government, is said to have entered the chief minister's good books when he was the commissioner of Bidhannagar police. It was during his term in Salt Lake that the Saradha scam broke and Bengal police were accused of going slow on the probe.

"His elevation to the top chair in election year shows that the chief minister trusts him to do her bidding," said a colleague of Kumar, who is admired and envied by some colleagues - and feared and disliked by those who have crossed his path - for his ability with electronic surveillance gadgets and his dogged pursuit of matters.

The formal order on his new assignment was issued by the home department on Friday evening, but Kar Purkayastha will hold the post until Kumar, now the additional director-general of police (CID), formally takes charge of the big room at Lalbazar.

Kar Purkayastha, whose tenure lasted a few days short of three years, would have anyway had to be shifted ahead of the Assembly elections, based on the convention of transferring a senior officer with electoral responsibilities who has served three years or more in a particular post.

He has been promoted to director-general of police (crime), a post revived to place him at the helm of the state CID. Special commissioner-I Soumen Mitra, who is a batch senior to Kumar and was once thought to be in the running for the top job, has been shifted to the CID as additional director-general to ensure that the new police commissioner is the senior-most IPS officer in Lalbazar.

Kar Purkayastha will hold additional charge as officer on special duty (co-ordinator), in the home department.

Metro spoke to several officers in the police directorate along with bureaucrats to trace the police commissioner-designate's career graph and dig out little-known nuggets.

♦ Kumar is a BE in computer science from the erstwhile University of Roorkee (now the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee). His roots are in Uttar Pradesh and he is married to an Indian Revenue Service officer. The couple have a son.

♦ His first posting as officer-in-charge of Durgapur police station was followed by multiple assignments in Calcutta and Bengal police's jurisdiction, including superintendent of police (SP), Birbhum; special SP, enforcement branch; deputy commissioner, enforcement branch; deputy commissioner, central division; special SP, CID; deputy inspector-general, CID (operations); joint commissioner, Special Task Force; additional commissioner, Calcutta police; commissioner, Bidhannagar police; and additional director-general, CID.

♦ Within 24 hours of coming to power in May 2011, chief minister Mamata had enquired about Kumar. She might have shunted him out immediately but for senior officials recommending him as a "very good officer" who could be of use to her.

♦ Those who have seen Kumar from close quarters say he spends almost the entire day at work - not necessarily in his office room - and seldom socialises. He would often take a few minutes off to walk on a treadmill in his ante chamber at the STF office in Lalbazar. An officer who has worked under him said Kumar would sometimes squeeze a few minutes out of an interrogation session and fulfil his quota of exercise with a few push-ups in his office.

♦ Kumar's skills in electronic surveillance as the chief of the Special Task Force had helped the Mamata government fight Maoists in Jungle Mahal. He is said to have developed his "snooping" skills as the special SP, CID.

♦ Kumar had once almost laid his hands on a Chhota Rajan aide hiding in Calcutta but allegedly aborted the operation on learning that he was "a source for a central agency".

♦ According to sources, just when STF officers posing as journalists had lured Chhatradhar Mahato into a trap before his arrest, Kumar was within 100 metres of the spot.

♦ As SP, Burdwan, Kumar had been tipped off about the presence of a sophisticated weapon in the house of a CPM zonal leader in Purulia. Kumar dared to search the house of a ruling party leader when many would have developed cold feet and it was carried out without informing the local police. The leader fled before Kumar's team closed in and the weapon wasn't found

♦ A contemporary describes him thus: "A little disorganised, yet one of the best brains in Bengal police.... A true friend who most of his batchmates bank on when they visit Bengal, but someone who never forgets or forgives either."