Prasad shunted out as state intelligence chief

The State government on Friday transferred Additional Director General of Police (Intelligence) A M Prasad as ADGP and Commissioner for Traffic and Road Safety.

The post, considered to be an insignificant one, has been upgraded and declared equivalent in status and responsibilities to that of the ADGP (law and order).

Prasad has been named accused number three in the FIR filed by the Madikeri Town Police in the DySP M K Ganapathi’s suicide case.  Sources in the Chief Ministers’ Office told Deccan Herald that the post of Commissioner for Traffic and Road Safety was never occupied. “It is a notional post which remained vacant, most of the time,’’ a senior officer said. “The post has been upgraded by keeping the cadre post of DIG and Commissioner for Traffic and Road Safety in abeyance,’’ the order said.

On Thursday, the state government cleared IGP Pronab Mohanty, who has been named the second accused in the FIR, for Central deputation as Deputy Director General (DDG) of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) in Bengaluru. Mohanty is presently IGP (Lokayukta).

Prasad’s transfer is a fallout of the police registering an FIR against the two officers and then Bengaluru Development Minister K J George, following a direction from the Judicial Magistrate First Class court in Madikeri. Prasad and Mohanty have approached the High Court seeking to quash the Madikeri court order.