Prasun Mukherjee

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Prasun Mukherjee (1950-) the ex Commissioner of Police in the city of Kolkata (Kolkata Police), West Bengal, India. He is an IPS officer. Recently he was elected President of the Cricket Association of Bengal.^[1]

Contents 1 Early life 2 Interests 3 Recent accusations 4 Transfer from the post of Police Commissioner 5 References

[edit] Early life

Born in 1950, he earned a degree in Mathematics from Patna University and qualified for the Civil Services and was allotted the Indian Police Service (IPS) in 1973, with West Bengal Cadre. During his career so far in the IPS , he has held the following posts:

• As Supernumerary ASP while under field training in Jalpaigiri
• ASP & Sub Divisional Police Officer (SDPO), Arambagh
• Additional Superintendent of Police (Addl SP), Birbhum
• Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Detective Department (II), Calcutta Police
• DCP, 1st Battalion, Calcutta Armed Police
• DCP, North Division, Calcutta Police
• SP, Howrah
• Special Superintendent (SS) of Police, Criminal Investigative Department (C.I.D.), West Bengal
• DCP, Detective Department (I), Calcutta Police
• Deputy Inspector General (D.I.G.), C.I.D.( Operations),West Bengal
• D.I.G., C.I.D.,West Bengal
• D.I.G.( Headquarters), West Bengal
• Inspector-General of Police (Law & Order), West Bengal
• IGP, South Bengal Zone ,Kolkata
• IGP, Enforcement Branch, West Bengal
• Additional Commissioner of Police, Kolkata Police
• Additional Director General & IG of Police, Railways, West Bengal
• Commissioner of Police, Kolkata
• Additional Director General & IG of Police (Telecom),West Bengal

He took over as the Commissioner of Police on 30th November, 2004, and on 17th October 2007, was transferred as Additional Director General of Police, Telecom, West Bengal, on suspicion of corruption, improper exercise of influence in the marital life of an inter-religious couple of Priyanka Todi, Daughter of Ashok Tode, and Rizwanur Rahman and irresponsible conduct. Previously, he has also held the post of the 'Secretary of the IPS Officers' Association of West Bengal for eight years in two stints. Is serving as the President of Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), having dethroned mighty Jagmohan Dalmia.

[edit] Interests

Mukherjee is interested in wildlife and nature conservation, and was one of the founder members of the NGO Nature Environment & Wildlife Society (NEWS), Calcutta in 1992. He has been the President of NEWS since 1996 and the organization has grown to become one of the leading NGO's working in this field. Mukherjee is also the Editor-in-Chief of the NEWS's quarterly colour magazine `ENVIRON', focusing on conservation of wildlife & nature.

Mukherjee has been the President of the West Bengal Athletic Association for the past three years, during which time he encouraged the involvement of sports-persons and corporate sector personalities in supporting the activities of athletes.

[edit] Recent accusations

His name hit the headlines while he attempted to endorse the reason for the mysterious death of Rizwanur Rahman, a graphic design instructor at one of the multimedia teaching private institutes. Rahman was allegedly harassed by the top Kolkata Police officials just before his death on 21st September 2007. Mukherjee certified his death as "definitely a suicide or an accident", even before a post-mortem examination report was available.^[2] Rahman was a 30 year old Muslim male from a lower middle class background, who married a 23 year old wealthy Hindu woman under provisions of the Special Marriage Act, 1955; the civil law applicable for registered marriage of persons from two different communities. The woman's father, who was previously under scrutiny for illegal cricket betting, reportedly sought help from Mukherjee through Snehashish Ganguly, elder brother of Sourav Ganguly, a renowned cricketer in his own right. Snehashish is one of the Directors of the firm owned by the woman's family. It is said the request was for getting his daughter back under the custody of father although she was of appropriate age to marry as an adult and continue to live with her husband. The meddling in this mostly private affair between two persons took place between 31st of August till the death of Rahman on 21st September, 2007. On 8th September, Rahman was physically separated from his wife with pressure from top police officials. After a fortnight of the separation, while Rahman filed a case with an NGO, and was planning to move to court, his severed body was found next to the railway tracks.^[3][4]

Mukherjee attended a press conference on 23rd September to endorse the innocence of high level police officials in Rahman's death.^[5]. He remarked that "police can interfere in cases where a marriage has taken place between families who are poles apart in social standing". He claimed to have done such things in the past, and said he would do so in the future too. He also asked the press, "who else will do it? The Public Works Department?"^[6][7]

He walked out of the said conference when asked whether he is aware of several laws regarding freedom of adult couples and protection of inter-religious marriages. Later, some police officials confessed that during the harassment, they were aware that Rahman was innocent of any crime, but were just carrying out orders from "the top".^[8][9]

[edit] Transfer from the post of Police Commissioner

As of early October 2007, several eminent social workers and intellectuals demanded Mukherjee's removal from the post of The Commissioner of Police.^[10][11] The government delayed to take any action presumably due to his close personal relations with the current Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, who previously assisted him in attaining the post of the President of The Cricket Association of Bengal.^[12] Buddhadeb Bhattacharya is also the Minister of Police, and has a long history of praising the police force for all their actions.

After a lot of speculations, Mukherjee was merely transferred from his post of the Commissioner of Police, on 17th October 2007, primarily due to media and public pressure.^[13] The Chief Minister announced that the action of transfer is a punishment in reality, and blamed the delay in his decision on a court case which was going on in the Kolkata High Court.^[14][15] He also added that suspension or removal of an IPS officer cannot be done until the results of the investigation into the case by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is submitted to the High Court of Calcutta.

[edit] References

Police appointments
Preceded by S. K. Chakravarti	Commissioner of Police, Kolkata 2004-17 Oct,2007;	Succeeded by Gautam Mohan Chakraborty