Pratap Reddy is new Bengaluru Police Commissioner

By NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The Karnataka government on Monday transferred the Bengaluru Police Commissioner Kamal Pant with immediate effect. Pratap Reddy IPS, of batch 1991, who was earlier the Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order), has been appointed as the new police chief. He will be the 35th Bengaluru Police Commissioner.

Kamal Pant has been posted as Director General of Police, Recruitment, relieving R Hitendra from the concurrent position.

Kamal Pant is a 1990 batch IPS officer of the Karnataka cadre. He was appointed mid-2020, succeeding his batchmate Bhaskar Rao.

Nor mally, city police chiefs are transferred every year, but Pant got an extended term of 22 months as the government did not enforce the transfer in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Incidentally, the transfer came just over a month after Pant had publicly contradicted the State Home Minister Araga Jnanendra, who tried to give communal twist to a murder in the city in April. Jnanendra had alleged that 22-yearo l d C h a n d r u w a s killed while riding his bike through a Muslimdominated neighbourhood because he did not know Urdu. However, the police commissioner clarified that Chandru’s muder was a road rage incident.

Other transfers
Alok Kumar, of 1994 IPS batch, who served as the Additional Director General of Police, Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP) in Bengaluru, has been posted as Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order), in place of Pratap Reddy.

R Hithendra of IPS batch 1996, who is the current Additional Director General of Police Crimes and Technical Services in Bengaluru has been given concurrent charge of the Karnataka State Reserve Police.

MN Anucheth of 2009 IPS batch, who served as the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Central Division, Bengaluru City, has been posted as Superintendent of Police Criminal Investigation Department, replacing T Venkatesh KSPS.