Jehanabad SP, IG suspended

Cracking down on senior officers after Sunday night's Naxalite attacks on Jehanabad jail and police barracks, Bihar government Tuesday suspended the district police superintendent and shunted out IG (Prisons) even as policemen protested the suspension. Superintendent of police Jehanabad Sunil Kumar was suspended and replaced by his counterpart in Rohtas B S Meena while Inspector General (Prisons) A B Prasad was shifted and Director, secondary education, Anand Kishor was appointed in his place.

Prasad, Special Secretary Home (Police), was holding additional charge of IG (Prisons), Chief Secretary H C Sirohi told PTI. The SP's suspension was announced at a press conference by Governor Buta Singh who dubbed the attack by Communist Party of India (Maoist) guerrillas as 'unprecedented.' The action against two senior officers came a day after the Bihar government constituted a two-member probe panel to go in to the incident which had occurred despite intelligence reports about possible offensive by the underground outfit.

Chief Secretary G S Kang, DGP A R Sinha and Home Secretary Sirohi faced an angry crowd of policemen when they reached Jehanabad to take stock of the situation at police lines. Raising slogans like "SP saheb zindabad," the agitated policemen accosted the three top officials demanding immediate revocation of SP's suspension.