NEW DELHI: Delhi Police "encounter specialist" Rajbir Singh, who was recently embroiled in a controversy over his alleged links with a drug mafia, was on Monday transferred out of the sensitive Special Cell unit to the Foreign Regional Registration Office (FRRO). However, a vigilance inquiry against him is still pending.

Rajbir, who claimed two promotions during his stint in West Delhi to become an Assistant Commissioner of Police, remained with the Special Cell for over six years and was the man behind almost all the big encounters, including those with terrorists. Said to have over 50 "kills" to his credit, he had become the face of counter-terrorism operations in the Capital.

However, some of the recent encounters landed him in controversies as strong suspicions were raised about the genuineness of the operations "supervised" by him. The latest was about his alleged links with a drug trafficker, after a telephonic conversation between them -- tapped by the Narcotics Branch -- was leaked to a section of the media.

Not so long ago, the Delhi High Court had issued notices to him and other officers on charges that he and his colleagues manhandled some people at Kirti Nagar in connection with a property dispute.

The prevailing circumstances forced the top brass to initiate a vigilance inquiry against Rajbir, but he was not shifted out of the Special Cell. In the Kirti Nagar case, he was given a clean chit by the Vigilance Department, but the High Court dismissed it ordering a fresh inquiry into the allegations. In the "telephonic conversation" case, the Police Commissioner ordered an inquiry under the Joint Commissioner of Police (Vigilance), but the report has not been filed yet.

While the police now claim that Rajbir's is a routine transfer, the manner in which the ACPs were transferred on Monday, suggests that a decision in this regard was taken in a hurry. According to the police, Ravi Shankar of the Inter-State Cell of the Crime Branch has been asked to replace Rajbir, while Jai Chand has been transferred from FRRO to the Operations Cell of the Central Delhi. L.N. Rao has been transferred from the Shahdara sub-division to the Crime Against Women Cell at Nanakpura, while Niranjan Singh has been transferred from Connaught Place to Shahdara. The police said G.L. Mehta, who was heading the Parliament Street sub-division, has been transferred to Connaught Place, whereas Rajeev Ranjan has been transferred from Delhi Cantonment to Parliament Street. Rajender Prasad Meena, who earlier headed the Operations Cell of the South-West Delhi, would replace Rajeev Ranjan. Vinod Kumar Sehgal has been transferred to Security from the District Investigation Unit of the South-West Delhi.

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