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IPS officer suspended over Kali idol desecration row in Bengal
The incident triggered a massive row in the state last year with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), then in the opposition, attacking the TMC
An Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, who was accused of shoving a desecrated idol of Goddess Kali into a prison van in October 2025, has been suspended, West Bengal chief minister Suvendu Adhikari said on Saturday.
He said that four other police officers in various police stations across the state, against whom allegations of atrocities, high-handedness and hurting religious sentiments had surfaced during the previous Trinamool Congress (TMC)-regime, were also suspended.
“An idol of Goddess Kali was desecrated during Kali Puja at Kakdwip in South 24 Parganas. Locals staged a protest as their religious sentiments were hurt. Koteswara Rao, the then superintendent of police of Sundarban police district resorted to lathi charge to disperse the mob. He then shoved the idol in a prison van and took it to the police station. He has been suspended,” Adhikari said.
The incident triggered a massive row in the state last year with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), then in the opposition, attacking the TMC, which was in power at that 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 and ex-inspector of Kolkata Police and a former inspector from Nadia were also suspended.
A first information report (FIR) has been registered against the ex-ASI of Kaliaganj who shot dead a person during an investigation. Departmental proceedings have been started against the former inspector from Nadia who allegedly made derogatory statements and hurt religious sentiments.
