New Delhi: IPS officer Bushra Bano was transferred from her post as Additional Superintendent of Police in Kharagpur, West Bengal, just over two months after taking charge. The move came a day after a Hindu group complained about a video in which she used Islamic greetings while speaking about her journey to the civil services.
Bano has been appointed deputy commandant of the 4th battalion of the state armed police. West Bengal Police Service (WBPS) officer Partha Ghosh has been appointed as the new additional SP in Kharagpur. Two other police officers were also given new postings in the same reshuffle. Bano was moved from Kharagpur to the West Bengal Armed Police’s 4th Battalion, where she took charge as deputy commandant. The same order appointed Ghosh, who was serving as additional deputy commissioner of the Chandannagar Police Commissionerate, as Kharagpur’s new additional SP. Subhendu Mandal, who was deputy commandant of the 4th Battalion, was moved to Chandannagar as additional deputy commissioner. She cleared the UPSC examination more than once during her career. Reports say she first secured a place in the Indian Railway Traffic Service and later cleared the examination again to enter the IPS. She had also served as a sub-divisional magistrate in Uttar Pradesh before joining the police service.
Because she used Islamic expressions, no official statement has said that the transfer was ordered. The transfer order was issued on September 14.
The West Bengal government has described the transfer as part of a routine administrative reshuffle and the official notification lists “public interest” as the reason. The government described the exercise as a minor administrative reshuffle and said the postings were made “in the public interest”.
