An Indian Police Service officer, accused of pushing a statue of Goddess Kali into a prison van in October 2025, has been suspended, West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said on Saturday.
Four other police officers in various police stations across the state, against whom allegations of atrocities, tyranny and hurting religious sentiments had surfaced during the previous Trinamool Congress (TMC) regime, have also been suspended, he said.
“A statue of Goddess Kali was desecrated during Kali Puja at Kakdwip in South 24 Parganas. Locals staged a protest because their religious sentiments were hurt. Koteswara Rao, the then Superintendent of Police of Sundarban district, resorted to lathi charge to disperse the mob. He then pushed the statue into a prison truck and took it to the police station. He was suspended,” Adhikari said.
The incident sparked a major row in the state last year with the Bharatiya Janata Party, then in opposition, attacking the TMC that was in power at the time.
The list of suspended police officers also includes a former assistant sub-inspector of Kaliaganj police station in Uttar Dinajpur, a former sub-inspector, a former inspector of Kolkata Police and a former inspector of Nadia have also been suspended.
A first information report (FIR) has been registered against a former ASI in Kalyaganj who shot dead a person during investigation. Administrative proceedings have been initiated against the former inspector from Nadia who allegedly made insulting remarks and hurt religious sentiments.
