Prasun Mukherjee (born 1950) the former Commissioner of Police in the city of

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

(

Kolkata Police The Kolkata Police Force (KPF) is one of the two presidency police forces of the Indian state of West Bengal. Kolkata Police has the task of policing the metropolitan area (apart from Bidhannagar and New Town, which are served by the Bidhannag ...

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the four ...

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

and a senior

Indian Police Service The Indian Police Service ( IPS) is a civil service under the All India Services. It replaced the Indian Imperial Police in 1948, a year after India became Partition of India, independent from the British Raj. Along with the Indian Administ ...

(IPS) officer. In 2006 he was elected President of the

Cricket Association of Bengal Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) is the governing body for cricket in the Indian state of West Bengal. Its headquarters are located in the Eden Gardens stadium, Kolkata. It is a full member of Board of Control for Cricket in India. It gover ...

but lost the next election and was replaced by

Jagmohan Dalmiya Jagmohan Dalmiya (30 May 1940 – 20 September 2015) was an Indian cricket administrator and businessman from the city of Kolkata. He was the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India as well as the Cricket Association of Bengal. H ...

in 2008.

Early life

Born in 1950, he earned a degree in mathematics from

Patna University Patna University is a public state university in Patna, Bihar, India. It was established on 1 October 1917 during the British Raj. It is the first university in Bihar and the seventh oldest university in the Indian subcontinent in the modern er ...

and qualified for the Civil Services and was allotted the Indian Police Service (IPS) in 1973, with West Bengal Cadre. During his career so far in the IPS, he has held the following posts: *As Supernumerary ASP while under field training in Jalpaigiri *ASP & Sub Divisional Police Officer (SDPO),

Arambagh Arambagh also known as Arambag is a town and a municipality in Hooghly district in the state of West Bengal, India. It is the headquarters of Arambagh subdivision. Geography Location Arambagh is located at . It has an average elevation of ...

*Additional Superintendent of Police (Addl SP),

Birbhum Birbhum district () is an administrative unit in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the northernmost district of Burdwan division—one of the five administrative divisions of West Bengal. The district headquarters is in Suri. Other impor ...

*Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Detective Department (II),

Calcutta Police The Kolkata Police Force (KPF) is one of the two presidency police forces of the Indian state of West Bengal. Kolkata Police has the task of policing the metropolitan area (apart from Bidhannagar and New Town, which are served by the Bidhannag ...

*DCP, 1st Battalion, Calcutta Armed Police *DCP, North Division,

*SP,

Howrah Howrah (, , alternatively spelled as Haora) is a city in the Indian state of West Bengal. Howrah is located on the western bank of the Hooghly River opposite its twin city of Kolkata. Administratively it lies within Howrah district, and is t ...

*Special Superintendent (SS) of Police, Criminal Investigative Department (C.I.D.),

*DCP, Detective Department (I),

*Deputy Inspector General (D.I.G.), C.I.D.( Operations),

*D.I.G., C.I.D.,West Bengal *D.I.G.( Headquarters), West Bengal *Inspector-General of Police (Law & Order), West Bengal *IGP, South Bengal Zone, Kolkata *IGP, Enforcement Branch, West Bengal *Additional Commissioner of Police, Kolkata Police *Additional Director General & IG of Police, Railways, West Bengal *

Police Commissioner of Kolkata The Commissioner of Police, Kolkata is the chief of the Kolkata Police. The Kolkata Police Commissioner is appointed by the Government of West Bengal and reports independently to the Home Secretary of the State. The headquarter is at 18, Lal ...

*Additional Director General & IG of Police (Telecom),West Bengal *Director General, Bureau of Police Research & Development, Ministry of Home Affairs, Govt. of India He took over as the Commissioner of Police on 30 November 2004, and on 17 October 2007, was transferred as Additional Director General of Police, Telecom, West Bengal. Previously, he has also held the post of the 'Secretary of the IPS Officers' Association of West Bengal for eight years in two stints.

The Rizwanur Rahman Case

His name hit the headlines while he attempted to endorse the reason for the mysterious death of

Rizwanur Rahman Rizwanur Rahman (1977 – 21 September 2007) was a 30 year-old computer graphics trainer who was driven into committing suicide according to the Central Bureau of Investigation.Muslim male from a lower-middle-class background, who married a 23-year-old wealthy Hindu woman under provisions of the Special Marriage Act, 1955; the civil law applicable for registered marriage of persons from two different communities. The woman's father, who was previously under scrutiny for illegal cricket betting, reportedly sought help from Mukherjee through Snehashish Ganguly, elder brother of Sourav Ganguly, a renowned cricketer in his own right. Snehashish is one of the Directors of the firm owned by the woman's family. It is said the request was for getting his daughter back under the custody of father although she was of appropriate age to marry as an adult and legally allowed to live with her husband. The interference between the two condenting adults took place from 31 August till the death of Rahman on 21 September 2007. On 8 September, Rahman was physically separated from his wife with pressure from top police officials. After a fortnight of the separation, while Rahman filed a case with an

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in ...

, and was planning to move to court, his severed body was found next to the railway tracks. Mukherjee attended a press conference on 23 September to endorse the supposed duty of police officials to interfere in people's personal matters. He remarked that "police can interfere in cases where a marriage has taken place between families who are poles apart in social standing". He claimed to have done such things in the past, and said he would do so in the future too. He also asked the press, "who else will do it? The Public Works Department?" He walked out of the said conference when asked whether he is aware of several laws regarding freedom of adult couples and protection of inter-religious marriages. Later, some police officials confessed that during the harassment, they were aware that Rahman was innocent of any crime, but were just carrying out orders from "the top". The case generated huge media outcry, and in 2011,has even been linked to the electoral defeat of the ruling government, hither-to considered invincible.

Transfer from the post of Police Commissioner

As of early October 2007, several eminent social workers and intellectuals demanded Mukherjee's removal from the post of The Commissioner of Police. The government delayed to take any action presumably due to his close personal relations with the former Chief Minister

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee also known as Buddha Babu (born 1 March 1944) is an Indian Communist politician and a former member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). He served as the 7th Chief Minister of West Bengal from 2000 ...

, who previously assisted him in attaining the post of the President of The

. Buddhadeb Bhattacharya was also the Minister of Police, and has a long history of praising the police force for all their actions. After a lot of speculations, Mukherjee was merely transferred from his post of the Commissioner of Police, on 17 October 2007, primarily due to media and public pressure. The Chief Minister announced that the action of transfer is a punishment in reality, and blamed the delay in his decision on a court case which was going on in the Kolkata High Court.India eNews – Get the latest news from India
/ref> He also added that suspension or removal of an IPS officer cannot be done until the results of the investigation into the case by the

Central Bureau of Investigation The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is the premier investigating agency of India. It operates under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. Originally set up to investigate bribery and governme ...

(CBI) are submitted to the High Court of Calcutta.

Interests

Mukherjee has expressed interest in wildlife and nature conservation, and was one of the founder members of the NGO ''Nature Environment & Wildlife Society'' (NEWS), Calcutta in 1992. He has been the President of NEWS since 1996 and the organization has grown to become one of the leading NGO's working in this field. Mukherjee is also the Editor-in-Chief of the NEWS's quarterly colour magazine 'ENVIRON', focusing on conservation of wildlife & nature. Mukherjee has been the President of the West Bengal Athletic Association for the past three years, during which time he encouraged the involvement of sports-persons and corporate sector personalities in supporting the activities of athletes.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mukherjee, Prasun Indian police chiefs Bengali Hindus Police officers from Kolkata 1950 births Living people Patna University alumni Indian cricket administrators Presidents of the Cricket Association of Bengal Cricketers from Kolkata