IAS officer removed by EC before polls reinstated as Ranchi dy commissioner

The Hemant Soren government has reinstated Manjunath Bhajantri as the Ranchi district deputy commissioner (DC), from which he was removed by the EC before the Assembly elections following a complaint by the BJP, according to a notification.

The decision to bring Bhajantri back to the post was taken hours after JMM leader Hemant Soren took oath as the Chief Minister of Jharkhand.

The 2011 batch IAS officer was appointed as Ranchi DC by the Hemant Soren government on September 30 ahead of the polls which took place in two phases - November 20 and 23. He was removed on October 15 following a complaint by the BJP legal cell to the Chief Electoral Officer and shifted to Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society as its CEO.

"Chief Executive Officer of Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society (JSLPS) Manjunath Bhajantri has been transferred and appointed as Deputy Commissioner, Ranchi, till further orders," a notification from the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms read.

Ranchi DC Varun Ranjan, a 2014 batch IAS officer, was transferred to Jharkhand Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation as Managing Director, with additional charge as Commissioner, Mines.

Bhajantri, during his tenure as Deoghar DC, had alleged that BJP MP Nishikant Dubey and eight others had entered the ATC room in the Deogarh airport and forcibly took clearance for the take-off for their chartered flight beyond the scheduled time in August 2022. Following this, a Twitter war broke out between the two.

Dubey also lodged an FIR against the officer alleging that he was involved in sedition and violated the Official Secret Act. The Jharkhand High Court quashed the FIR in August of this year.