Lucknow, Oct 15 (IANS): The Uttar Pradesh government affected a major reshuffle in the police department late on Friday night, transferring 70 Indian Police Service (IPS) officers, including police chiefs of more than 65 districts, an official said.

According to a senior Home Department official, prominent among those who have been transferred are district police chiefs of Kanpur, Mainpuri, Faizabad, Mathura, Muzaffarnagar, Kanpur rural, Firozabad, Shamli, Hapur, Hardoi, Jalaun and Chitrakoot.

Sunil Kumar Saxena has been made the Superintendent of Police of Mainpuri, the pocket borough of the ruling Samajwadi Party, while Anant Deo has been made the police chief of the sensitive town of Faizabad, and Shalabh Mathur has been transferred from Kanpur and posted as the new Senior Superintendent of Police of Allahabad.

Babloo Kumar has been sent out from Mathura and sent to Muzaffarnagar while Himanshu Kumar has been made the new SSP of bangle city Firozabad, Ajay Pal of Shamli, Keshav Chowdhary of Hapur and Mohit Gupta will hold charge as the new district police chief of Mathura. Rakesh Singh, who was suspended and transferred out of Mathura after the massive violence in Jawaharbagh which claimed the lives of 32 persons, has been sent as new SP of Jalaun.

H.N. Singh has been shifted from Varanasi and made the new SSP of Kanpur, Joginder Kumar is the new SSP of Moradabad, replacing Nitin Tiwari who moves to nearby Bareilly in the same post.