In yet another major reshuffle, the Yogi Adityanath government on Friday transferred of 39 senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officers including 10 Additional DGs, 23 Inspectors General and six Deputy Inspectors General.
Also additional DG-rank IPS officers were today for the first time made in-charge of Varanasi, Meerut, Agra, Bareilly and Lucknow zones.
Meerut zone covers Bulandshahr, where members of the Yogi Adityanath-founded Hindu Yuva Vahini are alleged to be behind the murder of an aged Muslim man after a 'love-jihad' style elopement.
The Bulandshahr incident happened even as Adityanath met senior Yuva Vahini workers during his visit to Gorakhpur and warned them to not take law in their hands.
The reshuffle also saw posting of a new DIG in Saharanpur where caste violence involving Dalits and Thakurs broke out even before a controversy after an attack on Saharanpur senior SP's residence by BJP activists, allegedly under the leadership of local MP Raghav Lakhanpal, was over.
ADG (Training) Bishvajit Mahapatra has been posted to Varanasi; ADG Police Academy Moradabad, Anand Kumar, to Meerut; IG/ADG Meerut Ajay Anand to Agra and ADG PTC Moradabad Brijraj Meena to Bareilly and ADG Crime Abhay Kumar Prasad as ADG Lucknow zone.
Usually zones are headed by IG-rank officers, but this step has been taken in order to put the long experience of senior officers of the ADG level to use in important zones.
IG Agra, Sujit Pandey, has been made IG Administration Lucknow, IG STF Ram Kumar becomes IG Meerut, IG (Security) Mutha Ashok Jain will be IG Agra range, IG PAC Lucknow SK Bhagat will take over as IG Bareilly.
IG (Food Cell) Lucknow Jai Narain Singh has been made IG Lucknow, IG PAC east zone Alok Singh will be IG Kanpur range, IG Intelligence Rajesh Kumar Srivastava will be IG Faizabad.
The government also posted new DIGs in Basti and Varanasi.