The Election Commission of India (ECI) has ordered the removal ofsub-divisional police officer (SDPO) of Barh sub division, Lipi Singh, ahead of the pollingin theMunger parliamentary constituency on April 29, when the fourth phase of Lok Sabha polls will be held.

Assistant SP Lipi Singh, a 2016-batch IPS officer, has been transferred to the anti-terror squad. DSP (traffic) of Bhagalpur, R K Jha, has replaced her at Barh, which is a part of Patna district but falls in the Munger parliamentary constituency.

Singh, who is the daughter of senior JD(U) leader and Rajya Sabha member RCP Singh, is the third police officer in the state who has been removed from the post on ECI’s orders.

The action follows complaints of bias by opposition parties. A delegation of grand alliance led by Neelam Devi, Congress’s candidate from Munger and wife of Independent MLA Anant Singh, had submitted a memorandum to the ECI alleging that some state government officials, including Lipi Singh, were acting as agents of ruling JD(U) candidate Rajeev Ranjan Singh alias Lallan Singh.

In the complaint, she alleged that the Barh SDPO was acting in the most partisan ways to create panic and fear, particularly among party workers and sympathisers of the grand alliance, and had demanded her transfer.

Following the allegations, the ECI had sought a detailed report from Patna DM Kumar Ravi in this regard. “We have received the order regarding removal of the Barh SDPO from the Election Commission,” said a senior official of the state home department.

Earlier, Samastipur DM Chandra Sekhar was removed from the post on April 3 while Sitamarhi DM Dr Ranjit Singh was removed on April 9.

First Published: Apr 26, 2019 15:32 IST