Bengaluru police commissioner Praveen Sood shunted out

BENGALURU: Barely seven months after being appointed as police commissioner, Praveen Sood was transferred on Monday. The move raised eye-brows both in the police administration and outside.

1989-batch IPS officer T Suneel Kumar will take over as police commissioner. Kumar has earlier served as additional police commissioner, heading law & order division in the city.

Sood will now move to communication, modernisation and logistics (CLM) as its additional DGP . His transfer order came as a big surprise.Barely two hours after the new police commissioner was announced, Sood handed over the charge to Kumar.

Sood took over as police commissioner on January 1 amid reports of alleged molestation on New Year's eve on Brigade Road and MG Road. He is due for promotion as DGP in three months. The outgoing police commissioner revamped the entire Dial 100 emergency services and introduced Pink Hoysala patrol vehicles (Ertiga) and Suraksha app for women's safety.

He also strengthened the command centre to keep a tight vigil on law and order situation and on criminal elements in the city. The government has also appointed AM Prasad as DGP (Intelligence), and Neelamani S Raju as DGP , home guards and fire force.