Another IPS shake-up; Ravikanthe Gowda is traffic chief

BENGALURU: The new BJP government in the state, which has continued its major surgery of the police department, transferred eight more IPS officers on Monday. The city got DIG B R Ravikanthe Gowda as new Joint Commissioner of Police for traffic.Interestingly, the city, which had only one Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) rank officer, the police commissioner, got another ADGP-rank officer. S Parashiva Murthy, who was ADGP (Administration), is now posted as Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime), Bengaluru City, which has been upgraded from DIG rank to ADGP rank. It was lying vacant since the transfer of DIG Ravikanthe Gowda last week. 

M Abdulla Saleem, who was ADGP (Crime & Technical Services), has replaced Parashiva Murthy as ADGP (Administration). IGP P Harishekharan, who was Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Bengaluru City, was transferred and posted as IGP, Karnataka State Reserve Police. The Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) has been downgraded from IGP rank to DIG rank, and designated Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic). Ravikanthe Gowda, who was transferred from the post of Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) last week and was awaiting posting, will now have to handle the 
city’s traffic.

The government also transferred DCP (Crime) S Girish and posted him as Commandant, 9th Battalion, KSRP, Bengaluru. He was replaced by Kuldeep Kumar R Jain. Ravikanthe Gowda and Girish are the key officers of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the I Monetary Advisory (IMA) multi-crore fraud case, and have been transferred, but will continue their work in SIT.

The Mangaluru City police commissioner’s post, lying vacant following the transfer of Sandeep Patil, was filled by DIG PS Harsha, who was earlier Director (Security & Vigilance), Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation.SP Ravi D Channannavar, who was with CID, was posted as SP, Bengaluru Rural. TP Shivakumar, who was holding the post, was transferred without posting.

IGP B Dayananda, whose transfer to KSRP was cancelled, is posted as IGP, CID & Economic Offences. Arunangshu Giri, who was SP, Anti-Naxal Force, Karkala, Udupi district, is posted as DCP, Law and Order, Mangaluru City.

Prakash is new BDA commissioner 
While the police department being shaken up with two rounds of transfers in as many months, Another transfer was effected in senior IAS ranks. This time, Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) commissioner Dr N Manjula, who took charge on June 17, was transferred without a posting, while Dr GC Prakash, former commissioner of the labour department, is now in charge of the body.

The order came on Monday evening. Manjula was the first woman, after 20 years, to have taken charge of BDA. Before her, Rakesh Singh’s tenure was marred with controversy due to disagreements with Board chairperson ST Somashekar, over various issues.