Two IPS officers — Damayanti Sen and K Jayaraman — widely regarded as “honest and stubborn” and believed to have been sidelined during the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) regime in Bengal, returned to the spotlight on Monday after Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari appointed them member secretaries of two separate commissions. The panels, headed by retired High Court judges, will probe allegations of “institutional corruption” and crimes against women that allegedly took place during the TMC’s 15-year rule.
Damayanti Sen
A 1996-batch IPS officer of the West Bengal cadre, Sen currently serves as Additional Director General and Inspector General of Police.
An Economics postgraduate from Jadavpur University, Sen has earned a reputation for being an honest officer. She was also the first woman officer to serve as Joint Commissioner (Crime) in the Kolkata Police.
Sen first came into the spotlight in 2012 after an Anglo-Indian woman alleged that she had been raped inside a moving car after leaving a club in Park Street. Even as then Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee dismissed the incident as a “fabricated story intended to malign her government’s image”, Sen — who was then serving as Joint Commissioner (Crime) — continued the investigation. Her team quickly arrested the accused and gathered evidence confirming that the assault had taken place.
Her investigation into the case was widely seen as contradicting the political narrative. Soon afterwards, Sen was transferred to the Police Training College in Barrackpore. While officials described the move as a “routine administrative decision”, many in political and police circles questioned whether the transfer was linked to her handling of the rape case. However, no direct connection between the two was ever established.
Sen later returned to Kolkata as Special Commissioner, though she rarely handled politically sensitive cases during the TMC regime.
In 2022, the Calcutta High Court directed Sen to investigate four rape cases as well as the widely discussed Rasika Jain death case — a move seen as reflecting the court’s confidence in her integrity and investigative abilities. A year later, she was transferred as ADG (Training), a posting that largely kept her away from the limelight.
“She is deeply emotional while handling cases involving atrocities against women, especially rape and molestation. In the Park Street case, even though other officers believed no crime had been committed, she always said ‘something has happened’. We hope she investigates cases under the commission with the same passion,” a senior IPS officer said.
K Jayaraman
A 1997-batch IPS officer of the West Bengal cadre, Jayaraman currently serves as ADG of the North Bengal range.
Known for his operational and administrative expertise, Jayaraman was suspended on November 30, 2013, just hours after he — then serving as Commissioner of Police, Siliguri — arrested the then Malda District Magistrate, G Kiran Kumar, on charges of financial irregularities linked to the Siliguri Jalpaiguri Development Authority, where Kumar had previously served as CEO.
“The arrest was highly embarrassing. We feel it was unnecessary and that the Siliguri CP exceeded his brief,” then Chief Secretary Sanjay Mitra had said while justifying Jayaraman’s suspension, adding that the officer had failed to obtain permission from the state administration.
During his compulsory waiting period, Jayaraman was allotted a small room in the Writers’ Building and decided to apply for central deputation. “I am neither happy nor sad. I am an officer of the state government and will have to obey orders,” he had said at the time.
Before his suspension, Jayaraman’s team had questioned several politicians, including then TMC Siliguri MLA Rudranath Bhattacharya and TMC Jalpaiguri district president Chandan Bhowmick, in connection with the alleged scam.
After suspending Jayaraman, the TMC government handed the case over to the CID, which later stated in its report that no further investigation was required as Jayaraman’s report already contained all the necessary details.
Despite this, Jayaraman remained away from high-profile postings until 2022, when the Calcutta High Court constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) led by him — then serving as ADG (Headquarters) — to probe the unnatural death of Faizan Ahmed, who was found dead in his hostel room at IIT-Kharagpur.
