The Election Commission of India (ECI) has removed Deoghar SP Ajit Peter Dungdung and asked the state administration of Jharkhand to put up name of the SP to post so that it can post him there. 

The transfer of SP Dungdung comes Shiv Dutt Sharma, who was an absconding accused in three cases had lodged complaint against BJP MP Nishikant Dubey at Jasidih police station on March 28. 

In his FIR, Shiv Dutt Sharma had accused Dubey and his wife Anamika Gautam of using the Baba Baidyanath Medical Trust, associated with them, to unlawfully take over his hospital by auctioning it off and manipulating documents related to his institution.

However, since Sharma himself was an accused in three cases and have been evading arrest for long, Dubey had lodged complaint as to how he managed to file “bogus” FIR against him without being nabbed by the police. 

Deoghar SP Ajit Peter Dungdung is not an odd case as EC has also removed two other senior officers – additional chief electoral officer Amit Roy Chowdhury and joint chief electoral officer Rahul Nath – from poll management duties in West Bengal.  

The order in this regard came late on Monday and became public on Tuesday. The ECI has sought fresh names from the state government from which it will choose the replacements for these officers. The poll panel also removed Saumya Roy from the post of Deputy Commissioner of Kolkata police (South West). 

The officers to be transferred are Superintendent of Police of Chhota Udaipur and Ahmedabad Rural districts in Gujarat, SSP of Pathankot, Fazilka, Jalandhar Rural and Malerkotla districts of Punjab; District Magistrate of Dhenkanal and SPs of Deogarh and Cuttack Rural districts in Odisha; and DMs of Purba Medinipur, Jhargram, Purba Bardhaman and Birbhum districts of West Bengal. 

Additionally, the Commission has also directed for transfer of Bathinda SSP in Punjab and Sonitpur SP in Assam in view of their “kinship or familial association” with the elected political representatives. 

Under the directive, all respective State governments have been instructed to promptly issue the transfer orders and submit a compliance report to the Commission. The decision on transfers was taken after the Commission convened a meeting chaired by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar along with Election Commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu. 

On March 18, within 48 hours of announcing the poll schedule, the Election Commission had ordered the removal of a host of senior officials in various States, including the home secretaries of Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand as well as the West Bengal Director-General of Police Rajeev Kumar. 

The transfers, according to the Commission, is part of its efforts to maintain a level-playing field and ensure the integrity of the electoral process.