After moving 40 officers yesterday, Bengal transfers 57 more in major two-day police reshuffle
The Statesman | 29 November 2025
A day after the West Bengal government reshuffled 40 police officers, the state on Friday issued another sweeping set of transfer orders, this time shifting 57 officers in the ranks of ACP, SDPO, IC and Deputy SP across multiple police districts and commissionerates.
The home and hill affairs department said the fresh round of transfers takes immediate effect.
According to the notification, officers have been moved across nearly all major commissionerates — including Bidhannagar, Howrah, Asansol–Durgapur and Siliguri — as well as district units in Murshidabad, Cooch Behar, North 24-Parganas, South 24-Parganas, East Midnapore, Jhargram, Purulia, Birbhum, Darjeeling, Alipurduar and Sundarbans police districts.
At the ACP level, officers such as Tanay Chatterjee (Barrackpore PC) have been shifted to SDPO roles, while several others — including Subir Kumar Bag, Dip Kumar Das, Ispita Dutta, Subhankar Biswas, Santabrata Chanda, and multiple officers from Bidhannagar PC and Chandannagar PC — have been reassigned across commissionerates and district police units.
A large number of SDPOs have also been rotated. These include postings in Habra, Mandirbazar, Kalna, Tehatta, Gangarampur, Bharatpur, Manbazar, Diamond Harbour and Bongaon, reflecting a broad reshuffle of field-level supervisory positions.
Deputy SPs from traffic, headquarters, DEB, D&T and crime wings have similarly been moved across districts such as Jhargram, Howrah Rural, Hooghly Rural, Birbhum, Murshidabad, Sundarbans and Alipurduar. Several inspectors-in-charge (ICs) serving in the rank of Deputy SP have also been reassigned, including those from Barasat and Chandannagar.
Yesterday’s reshuffle had drawn attention not only for its scale but for the movement of several district police chiefs.
Among the most notable was the transfer of East Midnapore SP Soumyadip Bhattacharya, who had recently been named in a complaint by Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari alleging political bias.
Bhattacharya was moved to Bankura, while key district postings — including East Midnapore — were left without immediate replacements.
The same order also realigned senior police officers in Jhargram, Malda, Jalpaiguri, Purulia, Alipurduar and North Dinajpur, besides shuffling officers in the Intelligence Branch and multiple commissionerates.
The back-to-back reshuffles — 40 transfers on Thursday followed by 57 more today — have come at a time when the state’s policing and administrative decisions are under heightened scrutiny in the run-up to the 2025 election cycle. However, the state government has described both rounds as routine administrative exercises.