Three top officials of Jharkhand's Latehar district removed

Ranchi, May 1 (PTI) Three top officials in India's
eastern state of Jharkhand have been removed from their posts
in the wake of widespread naxal violence in Latehar district
disrupting the first phase polling on April 16, official
sources said Friday.

Those given the marching orders are Latehar's Deputy
Commissioner Sarvendu Tathagat, Deputy Inspector General of
Police Nandu Prasad and Superintendent of Police Hemant Toppo.

While Tathagat has been asked to join the personnel
department, both Prasad and Toppo have been asked to report to
the state police headquarters, the sources said.

The action of the authorities in the state, which is
under President's Rule, comes a fortnight after widespread
naxal violence shook Latehar district, including the naxal
seize of a passenger train near Hehegarha in that area.

The naxalites had triggered two separate landmine
blasts on April 16 and 17, killing ten persons, including
seven Border Security Force (BSF) personnel, at Ladhup and
Kone villages in Latehar district.

The banned ultra left-wing extremists also seized for
over four hours a local passenger train carrying nearly 700
persons near Hehegarha railway station in the district.

A 1999-batch Indian Adminstrative Service (IAS)
officer, Rahul Kumar Purwar will replace Tathagat as Latehar's
new Deputy Commissioner.

Purwar was the Chief Executive Officer of Ranchi
Municipal Corporation.

The administration has also replaced DIG (Palamau
range) Nandu Prasad with Shashinath Jha, who was till now
posted at the police training centre, Hazaribagh.

The Superintendent of Police (Ranchi rural), Kuldeep
Dwivedi, will take over as the new police chief of Latehar
district, replacing Toppo. PTI PVR
RAI