Jan. 29: Alok Rajoria was today removed as Birbhum superintendent of police and given the less significant post of the commandant of state armed police.

Rajoria was one of the 11 IPS officers who were transferred today in a reshuffle. Mukesh Kumar, who was the Bankura police chief, will replace Rajoria.

Rajoria's transfer comes days after a young woman accused a Birbhum police team of torturing her on January 17. The woman had alleged that the police team rubbed nettle leaves on her, slashed her with blades and hit her with batons to get information on her nephew, a BJP worker.

'Rajoria's transfer to a post not very prominent is apparently the fallout of the incident of police torture,' said an official in the home department.

Although officials remained tight-lipped on the reason for the police officer's transfer, sources in Birbhum said the action on an inspector in-charge accused of involvement in the torture could have triggered the decision.

According to the sources, the officer in charge of the special operations group in Birbhum, Kartikmohan Ghosh, should have been suspended instead of being benched the first day.

'But Rajoria first closed him in the police lines on January 19 and suspended him the next day. The SP should have suspended him immediately. Also, no tangible action was taken against sub-divisional police officer Amlan Kusum Ghosh, who was the senior-most officer in the team. He was only showcaused,' a senior police officer said in Birbhum.

The source, however, pointed out that no police action is taken in Bengal without political interference.

Another reason police officers in Birbhum spoke of for Rajoria's transfer was the alleged delay in admitting the tortured woman to hospital.

'The woman was brought to Illambazar police station and kept there from 9pm on January 17 to 8am the next day. She sat in the police station in pain and bleeding from her right palm. Her relatives admitted her to Suri district hospital after she was allowed to leave the police station,' an officer said.

Before last year's Lok Sabha polls, Rajoria was shifted from Birbhum to fill the vacancy of the West Midnapore police chief after Bharati Ghosh was transferred to the CID following a directive from the Election Commission.

Once the poll process was over, Rajoria was brought back to his old office by Mamata Banerjee.

In the reshuffle today, Siliguri police commissioner Jag Mohan was transferred to the post of additional commissioner of police (III) of Calcutta police.

Manoj Verma, DIG, armed police, will replace him.

Godala Kiran Kumar, the former Malda district magistrate who was arrested on charges of siphoning off funds from the Siliguri-Jalpaiguri Development Authority on December 1, 2013, has been posted as the joint secretary in the agriculture department after spending more than a year on leave and compulsory waiting.

The move has raised several eyebrows in Nabanna as many officers sent on compulsory waiting by Mamata after charges of corruption were levelled against them had to wait for clearance from the vigilance wing before being given a new posting.

'Kumar is yet to get a clean chit as the charges against him are still pending. I don't know what prompted the chief minister to give him the posting before he was cleared of the charges,' a senior government official said.

Another official at Nabanna said: 'An officer can be given any posting till he is convicted in a court of law.'