Kathua SSP shifted to police headquarters

Senior Superintendent of Police, Kathua, M Suleman Choudhary, who was in the news because of a botched up probe into the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in January, was today shifted to the police headquarters.

He will be replaced by Shridhar Patil, who was heading the police force in South Kashmir's militancy affected Kulgam district, according to an official order.

Choudhary, a 2007-batch IPS officer from the Jammu and Kashmir cadre, has been transferred and posted in the same rank with the Criminal Intelligence and Vigilance Department, the order read.

Though the Jammu and Kashmir Police said it was a routine transfer, it comes two weeks after the J&K Crime Branch submitted its charge sheet in the Kathua rape-and-murder case.

The charge sheet accused two district police officers of accepting bribes and destroying crucial evidence.

Superintendent of Police Harmeet Singh, who was in-charge of Sopore in North Kashmir, replaces Patil, an IPS officer of the 2010 batch.

Shailendra Kumar Mishra, a 2009-batch IPS officer, who was posted in the police lines, has been appointed the Senior Superintendent of Police of Shopian, another militancy hit district in South Kashmir. He replaces Ambarkar Shriram Dinkar, an IPS officer of the 2011 batch, who has been shifted to the border district of Kupwara in North Kashmir.

Superintendent of Police, Kupwara, Shamsher Hussain has been made the commandant of 13th batallion of the Jammu and Kashmir Armed Police.

Javid Iqbal, Superintendent of Police at the police control room in Srinagar, has been appointed the district police chief of Sopore, which is considered the gateway for militants infiltrating from across the border.