Pratap Reddy to replace Kamal Pant as Bengaluru Police Commissioner

In a major reshuffle, the Karnataka government has ordered that Bengaluru Police Commissioner Kamal Pant be transferred with immediate effect. CH Pratap Reddy, who held the post of Additional Director General of Police, Law and Order, will now be the city’s Commissioner, the government said in an order on Monday, May 16. Kamal Pant has been transferred to the post of Director General of Police, Recruitment, relieving R Hitendra from the concurrent charge.

The transfer comes just over a month after Pant had publicly contradicted the state Home Minister with regard to a road rage case that was given a communal angle. After 22-year-old Chandru’s death in April, Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra had alleged that he was killed as he was riding through a locality with a high Muslim population and was attacked because he insisted on speaking Kannada and not Urdu. However, the Karnataka police commissioner had issued a fact check, stating that Chandru’s death was due to a road rage incident and there was no issue over the language spoken.

However, this can also be a routine transfer, as Pant has served around 22 months as the Bengaluru Police Commissioner.

In addition to these transfers the Karnataka government has also transferred Alok Kumar as the Additional Director General of Police, KSRP, Bengaluru. R Hithendra, Karnataka IPS 1996, who is the current Additional Director General of Police Crimes and Technical services in Bengaluru has been given concurrent charge of the post with immediate effect.

MN Anucheth, Karnataka IPS 2009, who had been serving as the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Central Division, Bengaluru City, has been transferred with immediate effect and posted until further orders as Superintendent of Police Criminal Investigation Department, to replace T Venkatesh KSPS.