ECI removes West Bengal DGP Virendra ahead of assembly elections

Chief Election Commissioner of India (CEC) Sunil Arora.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on March 9 removed West Bengal Director General of Police (DGP) Virendra from his post.

Virendra would be replaced by P Niranjayan, a 1987-batch IPS officer, as the new state police chief, the polling body said.

The Commission directed the state chief secretary to comply with its order "immediately". A compliance report should also be submitted by 10 am on March 10, the ECI stated.

The outgoing Bengal top cop "should not be assigned any duty which directly or indirectly related to the conduct of elections", the order further said.

Notably, the ECI is mandated to oversea the law and order in election-bound states during the Model Code of Conduct in place.

In West Bengal, a state where elections are marked with incidents of political violence, the Commission has reiterated that it would take measures to ensure peaceful conduct of polls.

Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora, while releasing the polling dates on February 26, announced that the assembly elections would be conducted in eight phases in West Bengal to ensure no untoward incident takes place during the electoral exercise.

The ECI, apart from ordering the transfer of West Bengal DGP, also directed the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) chairman to transfer IRS K G Anuraj out of poll-bound Tamil Nadu.