In a sudden development amid the Coronavirus outbreak and lockdown in Tamil Nadu, the state government has carried out a major shuffle in the state law enforcement agency where some of the top police officers in the state mechanism have been transferred.

The state government has passed the order of transfer of 39 high ranking police officers on Tuesday and the order has come at the high time when the state government is caught with massive outrage over the custodial deaths of Jayaraj and Bennicks in Sathakulam, Thoothukudi district. Chennai police commissioner AK Viswanathan is one among the officers who got transferred.

According to the reports, Chennai city police commissioner Viswanathan has been transferred from the post of leading the city's police and he has been appointed as Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Operations in Chennai. This post was previously held by Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal, who has now succeeded Viswanathan and took charge as the new Chennai City police commissioner.

Some of the major transfers include Madurai police commissioner Davidson Devasirvatham, who has been appointed as ADGP, Technical Services, Chennai whereas ADGP of Crime against women and Children M Ravi has been transferred to the special police force of Erode district. Tirupur police commissioner Kumar has been transferred from the post and has been appointed as the Inspector General of Police, Technical services in Chennai.

The government has transferred R Dhinakaran, who held the post of Additional Commissioner of Police Law and Order (North) of the Greater Chennai Police has now been appointed as the Additional Commissioner of Police to take over the law order in South division. This position was previously held by Prem Anand Sinha, who has now been appointed as the new Commissioner of Police, Madurai.

The shuffles in Chennai include, Amalraj who has been appointed as the Additional Commissioner of Police, Chennai. Previously, he was the Trichy police commissioner. Sunil Kumar IPS has been appointed as the Director-General of Police, State Human Rights Commission while Kapil Kumar Saratkar has been appointed as the IGP, special investigation division of CBCID, Chennai.

According to the reports, the shuffle of the Chennai city police commissioner has been one of the major transfers the government has made. Outgoing Commissioner AK Viswanathan was serving as the city's commissioner since 2017 and his successor Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal has been noted as one of the officers who played an important role in the migrant crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown.

The new Chennai city commissioner has bagged various awards and recognitions. He was bestowed with Police Medal for Meritorious Service and Chief Minister's Medal for Outstanding Devotion to Duty.  He was also been conferred with the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister's Police Medal for Excellence in Public Service in 2018. 

Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal had also served as the Deputy Inspector-General of Police in the Central Bureau of Investigation in Chandigarh for seven years before coming to Tamil Nadu. Recently, he was deputed as a nodal officer in Chennai's North Zone to work with the Chennai Corporation in curbing the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.