Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the Kerala Police department has undergone a reshuffle among the various senior police officials in the department, including the Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode city police commissioners.
The appointment of Sanjay Kumar Garud, who was the Kozhikode City police Commissioner, as the Thiruvananthapuram City Police Commissioner is one of the major changes that took place on Wednesday. Sanjay will also be the third Commissioner in the state capital in two months.
Replacing Sanjay Kumar Garud as the Kozhikode police commissioner will be AV George IPS, who has previously led the investigations with regard to the Malayalam actor abduction and sexual assault case in February 2017. George, who was on suspension in connection with the infamous Varapuzha custodial death case, was posted at the Police Academy following his return. Now, a year later, he takes over as the Kozhikode Commissioner in the Law and Order department.
Meanwhile, Manoj Abraham IPS, has been appointed as the Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) of the South Zone, while Sheikh Darvesh Sahib will take charge as North Zone ADGP. Both Manoj Abraham and Sheikh Darvesh Sahib are crime branch ADGPs at the moment. Another notable change is regarding the appointment of Tomin J Thachankary as the coastal security ADGP. Thachankary was previously appointed as the ADGP of the Crime Records bureau.
Some of the other major changes are the appointments of Ashok Yadav IPS as the Thiruvananthapuram range Inspector General (IG), MR Ajith Kumar as the Kannur range IG and Balram Kumar Upadhyay as the Thrissur range IG. S Surendran, who was the Thiruvananthapuram City Commissioner has been given charge as City Police Commissioner of Kochi.
In February this year, the Kerala Police had witnessed another major reshuffle after many officials were either demoted, promoted or transferred. According to a report by The New Indian Express, 11 officials were demoted, 26 officials were promoted and 53 police officials were transferred in February. The demotions took place as a result of disciplinary action against them during the course of their work.