RG Kar Protests Fallout: Mamata Banerjee Appoints Outgoing Police Chief's Junior Manoj Verma As Kolkata Commissioner

The West Bengal government, led by Mamata Banerjee, appointed Manoj Kumar Verma as the new Commissioner of Kolkata Police on Tuesday (17 September) replacing Vineet Kumar Goyal.

Goyal's resignation was sought after Banerjee accepted some of the demands of the doctors protesting the RG Kar rape and murder. Goyal was taken into confidence before he was asked to step down.

Verma, an IPS officer from the 1998 batch, previously served as the Additional Director General (ADG) of law and order in West Bengal before taking on this new role.

Goyal has been reassigned as the ADG of the Special Task Force. He is a 1994 batch IPS officer and faced criticism for his management of the investigation into the RG Kar case.

The dead body of a 31-year-old postgraduate trainee doctor was found in the seminar hall of state-rune RG Kar Medical College and Hospital at Kolkata on 9 August after rape and murder.

Goyal had previously succeeded Soumen Mittra as the Commissioner of Kolkata Police in 2021. He had held several key positions in the Kolkata Police, including Joint Commissioner for the Special Task Force and Traffic, as well as Additional Commissioner of Police.

While Banerjee conceded to the demands of protesting doctors, she had defended the delay by police in lodging the First Information Report (FIR) in the case and said that they have lots of work, which might cause delay.

Other than Goyal, Kolkata Police Deputy Commissioner (North) Abhishek Gupta, Director of Medical Education Kaustuv Nayek, and Director of Medical Education Debashis Halder will also be removed from their posts.