As many as 18 Indian Police Service (IPS) officers have been transferred in poll-bound Karnataka on the order of the Election Commission (EC), an official statement said.

The transfer order was issued on Friday night on the recommendation of the EC ahead of the state assembly election due in late April or early May.

"This order is issued in concurrence of an EC letter dated March 8," the government notification said.

Among the officers transferred was M.N. Anucheth, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) west division, posted as the new Superintendent of Police, Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

Anucheth, who has also been an Investigation Officer of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the Kannada journalist Gauri Lankesh's murder case, will continue to hold the additional charge, the order said.

According to the notification, of the 18 IPS officers transferred to new posts, three were women -- G. Radhika, Renuka K. Sukumar and Kala Krishnamurthy.

Others transferred were B. Dayananda, Amrit Paul, Umesh Kumar, Soumendu Mukherjee, S. Ravi, Vipul Kumar, N. Shivaprasad, Amit Singh, Ravi D. Channannavar, Kuldeep Kumar R. Jain, Nikham Prakash Amrit, Bheemashankar S. Guled, Anoop A. Shetty and S. Girish.

Earlier this week, the state had issued transfer orders to a total of 12 Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers.