In another reshuffle in IPS ranks in Karnataka, Alok Kumar has been transferred out as the top cop in Bengaluru and 1990-batch officer Bhaskar Rao has been appointed the Police Commissioner. He was serving as the Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Karnataka State Reserve Police.

He has been accorded the President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service in 2017 and the President’s Police Medal for Meritorious Service in 2008.  He was also accorded the United nation’s Medal for the Services rendered in International Peacekeeping in a warzone (Kosovo, Yugoslavia) in 2000.

Before his posting in Reserve Police, he was serving as ADGP Crimes, Technical Services, Forensic lab, ADGP Canine squad, ADGP Directorate Civil Rights Enforcement and Mysuru Police Commissioner among other positions. 

His other postings include the Commissioner of Transport and Road Safety and the Director of the Karanataka State Transport Corporation. Rao is a known advocate of public and non-motorised transport and is a known cycling enthusiast.

Alok Kumar who was only appointed as the Bengaluru Police Commissioner in mid-June only has been shifted to the State Reserve Police in a like-for-like transfer. 

Friday’s transfer orders come after more than 10 changes were made in the state’s IPS hierarchy made on Thursday. The changes include the transfer of two top police officers probing the death of coffee czar and Coffee Day Enterprise founder VG Siddhartha. 

Other major reshuffles include: Amar Kumar Pandey, previously ADGP, Karnataka State Human Rights Commission, who has now been posted as the ADGP, Law and Order. Existing ADGP, Law and Order, Kamal Pant is the new chief of State Intelligence. Pant will replace B Dayanand, who will now be posted as the chief of the State Reserve Police.

Transfers of this scale are common with a new government taking shape. BS Yediyurappa took oath as the Chief Minister for the fourth time last month..