Soumen Mitra

Soumen Mitra (born 1961) is the current Additional Director General of Police (Training) (Kolkata Police) in the city of Kolkata, West Bengal, India, and a senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer[1] of Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) rank.

Soumen Mitra
Mitra, when he was serving as the Commissioner
38th Police Commissioner of Kolkata
In office
13 April 2016 – 21 May 2016
Preceded byRajeev Kumar IPS
Succeeded byRajeev Kumar IPS

Early life

Born in 1961 in Kolkata, Mitra was educated at St. Xavier's Collegiate School, Kolkata, Presidency College, Kolkata and Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, completing his BA, MA and M.Phil. A graduate of History, he qualified for the Civil Services and was allotted the Indian Police Service, belonging to the 1988-batch in the West Bengal cadre.

  • A probationer in Darjeeling
  • Asst Commissioner of Police, Operations, Darjeeling
  • Sub-divisional Police Officer (SDPO), Barrackpore
  • Additional Superintendent of Police, Murshidabad
  • Additional Superintendent of Police, Asansol
  • Deputy Commissioner of Police, (Special), Detective Department, Kolkata Police
  • Superintendent of Police, Murshidabad
  • Deputy Commissioner of Police, North Division, Kolkata Police
  • Superintendent of Police, Howrah
  • Deputy Commissioner of Police, Detective Department, Kolkata Police
  • Joint Commissioner of Police, (Organization), Kolkata Police
  • Deputy Inspector General of Police, Criminal Investigation Department
  • Deputy Inspector General of Police, Presidency Range
  • Inspector General of Police, Criminal Investigation Department
  • Additional Commissioner of Police II, Kolkata Police
  • Special Commissioner of Police, Kolkata Police
  • Additional Director General of Police, Criminal Investigation Department
  • Commissioner of Police, Kolkata Police
  • Additional Director General of Police and Inspector General of Police, Training

Beginning his career in Darjeeling in 1989, he has held a vast number of posts as mentioned before: consecutive superintendents of police, experience in the C.I.D, head of the Detective Department and extensive work as a senior officer in Kolkata Police.[2]

Mitra took over as Commissioner of Police, Kolkata on 13 April 2016[3] and held the afore-mentioned office till 21 May 2016.

Transfer to the Post of Police Commissioner

Around the end of January 2016 in a major police reshuffle Rajeev Kumar, the ADG (CID) was made the Commissioner of Police to succeed Surajit Kar Purakayastha. As result Mitra being a batch senior to Kumar, was transferred to CID as its ADG.[4]

However because of various reasons he was removed by the Election Commission of India on 12 April 2016 and replaced with Soumen Mitra, who took charge on 13 April 2016.[5]

Transfer out from the Post of Police Commissioner

On 21 May, just two days after the Trinamool Congress came back to power with a majority of 211 seats, Mitra was removed by Nabanna to the post of ADG & IGP Training, and his predecessor Rajeev Kumar was brought back to the post.

Widespread Recognition
Soumen Mitra during a press conference. <Picture by Ei Samay, Kolkata>

After being brought in as the Commissioner of Police by the Election Commission, Mitra received widespread fame and recognition as "an able person who worked free of all political and other influences as a fair officer".[6] Under his leadership, the two phases of elections held in Kolkata were conducted without any trouble or violence. Appearing very frequently on the front-pages of newspapers and in magazines,[7] he soon became an "icon of honesty and integrity[7] and a hero for everyone to look up to.

Other interests

Mitra takes keen interest in social welfare issues, heritage and wildlife conservation. He is very popular among the police force for his professionalism, modern outlook and welfare schemes. He has taken initiatives in many places around West Bengal for rehabilitation of heritage buildings and heritage protection and recognition. He masterminded the recovery of 112 Ripon Street, Kolkata, Police Training School, Kolkata and many police stations and traffic guards throughout the city.

He has also worked with and been closely associated with numerous international organizations including the World Health Organization, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS.

Besides this, he has a keen interest in sports, both writing about it as well as being a sportsman himself. He was part of his school and college cricket and football teams, leading Presidency College as its captain in cricket.

He is also a school and college chess champion

Literary works

Mitra's M Phil dissertation has been published as a book entitled In Search of an Identity: The History of Football in Colonial Calcutta, 1880–1950.

Personal life

Soumen Mitra is married and resides in Kolkata.

gollark: Can we be more insane? Probably.
gollark: And fixed.
gollark: Okay, more brackets.
gollark: Hold on, doesn't work...
gollark: ```lualocal mt = { __unm = function(x) return not x end, __concat = function(x, y) return x and y end, __add = function(x, y) return x or y end}debug.setmetatable("potato" == "os", mt)if (-false + (0 == 0)) .. (#tostring(value) == 4)then print "WHY"end```

References
  1. Chakraborty, Ajanta (12 April 2016). "Rajeev Kumar removed, Soumen Mitra new Kolkata CP". The Times of India. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
  2. A laddin (12 April 2016), most corrupt ips of India rajiv kumar suspended from commissioner of police kolkata in just 75 days, retrieved 13 April 2016
  3. "After EC removes Kolkata police chief, Soumen Mitra takes over his post - Firstpost". Firstpost. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
  4. "Rajeev Kumar appointed as new Kolkata Police Commissioner". Retrieved 13 April 2016.
  5. "'Bias' Kumar gets the boot". The Telegraph. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
  6. "Bengal polls: Under new top cop Soumen Mitra, Kolkata Police discovers its lost spine - Firstpost". Firstpost. 22 April 2016. Retrieved 21 May 2016.
  7. "Last action hero: Why Kolkatans should be proud of police commissioner Soumen Mitra - Firstpost". Firstpost. 5 May 2016. Retrieved 21 May 2016.
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