Kolkata:
Kolkata's joint commissioner of police (Crime) Ms Damayanti Sen has been transferred as DIG (training) to Barrackpore, a posting considered low-profile in police circles.
The transfer is being seen by some as punishment for Ms Sen who had cracked the infamous Park Street gang rape case within four days of the accused being arrested. When a young woman said she had been raped in a car after leaving a pub on Park Street, the Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, said the complaint had been fabricated to malign her government. At the time, the police had said the alleged victim's account seemed to have some "inconsistencies."
But Ms Sen stood by the victim and led the investigation which ended with the arrests of four men.
Her effort earned her a lot of public praise. The rape victim said: "Ms Sen is a champ. She fought for me like a tigress." Soon after, Ms Sen met Ms Banerjee in her office at Writers' Buildings and addressed the media there, saying it was a "team effort" that helped her crack the case.
The contradiction between the top cop and the Chief Minister had led to a public outcry with Ms Banerjee's comments triggering a debate about her perceived insensitivity.
The West Bengal Governor MK Narayanan had also defended the Chief Minister stating that she may have been trying to "defuse the situation" in calling the alleged rape a "cooked up" incident.