Kolkata, Jul 25 (IANS): The West Bengal cabinet has cleared the appointment of retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer and former Karnataka DGP, Rupak Kumar Dutta as the new security advisor to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Dutta was also a former special director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

A senior cabinet member said on Tuesday that although the state government had been accepting Dutta’s advisory services even before the panchayat elections, his appointment as security advisor was formally cleared on Monday evening.

“He will be advising mainly on the security aspects in the international and inter-state border areas in West Bengal besides the general issues like law and order,” the member said.

However, Dutta'a appointment is being viewed as extremely significant amid the recent development where an armed person carrying weapons and narcotics was arrested near the Chief Minister’s residence in Kalighat on July 21.

The accused, Sheikh Nuru Amin, was carrying fake identity cards of multiple security agencies like the Intelligence Bureau and BSF.

Even the car in which he travelled also had a police sticker.