Gurugram: Narendra Bijarniya has now lost two postings in two days. The 2015-batch IPS officer was shifted out of Karnal Thursday, where he had been superintendent of police, and handed charge of the state’s Special Task Force (STF). By Saturday, that order too was scrapped. Bijarniya is now Commandant of the 1st Indian Reserve Battalion at Bhondsi, an office that carries none of the operational weight of either positions he held this week.
In all, the Haryana government issued three transfer lists within 48 hours. It moved 29 officers around by way of the first list, issued Thursday. This was followed by two more lists Saturday, through which it moved eight IPS officers around and, separately, cancelled the postings of two others.
The orders, an officer told The Print, were routine and signed by Sudhir Rajpal, additional chief secretary to the Haryana government, Home department.
Bijarniya’s exit from Karnal followed weeks of protest by the Ror community over a double encounter in the district. Police had shot dead two men, Harsh and Beerbal, in an encounter linked to the murder of one Beeru Valmiki. Harsh belonged to the Ror community, and the community has been insisting that the encounter was staged.
On Saturday, the Ror Mahasabha held a fresh panchayat in Karnal. Its president, Balkar Singh, told reporters the government had now met two of the community’s three demands—an apology from Karnal MLA Jagmohan Anand, and the transfer of officers concerned.
Karnal IG Ashok Kumar was also moved out Thursday, alongside Bijarniya.
The third demand remains unmet: a probe into the double encounter by the CBI or a sitting High Court judge. Balkar Singh gave the government seven days to act, warning that the community would escalate its agitation if the demand is ignored.
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Who is Narendra Bijarniya
Bijarniya hails from Sikar in Rajasthan and holds an engineering degree from MNIT Jaipur.
He was Rohtak SP in October last year when IPS officer Y. Puran Kumar died by suicide, leaving behind a note naming eight senior officers, including Bijarniya and then-DGP Shatrujeet Kapur, accusing them of caste-based harassment.
Bijarniya had overseen the arrest of a head constable close to Puran Kumar days before the death, an episode Puran Kumar’s family says triggered it. He was transferred out of Rohtak soon after. Days later, an ASI investigating the case under him died by suicide too, leaving behind a video where he referred to Bijarniya as an honest officer.
As a young IPS officer on his training posting in Sirsa, Bijarniya was part of the joint operation with the Rajasthan Special Operations Group (SOG) that tracked gangster Anandpal Singh’s network and arrested his brothers.
On the night of 24 June, 2017, when Anandpal was killed in an encounter at Malasar village in Churu district, Bijarniya was among the Haryana Police officers present at the site, with Haryana Police manning the outer cordon while Rajasthan SOG teams closed in on the building. Anandpal’s family called the encounter staged, and the case went to the CBI, which in July 2024 saw a court order a murder case against seven Rajasthan Police personnel involved in the operation. Bijarniya was not named among them.
In November 2025, a district court, however, reversed the order of the lower court that ordered murder case against the Rajasthan Police personnel.
Despite the controversies trailing him, the BJP government in Haryana has consistently turned to Bijarniya to handle sensitive matters, as his second stint in Nuh shows.
When communal violence broke out in the district on 31 July, 2023, during the Brajmandal Yatra organised by Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), SP Varun Singla was on leave, and the charge was given to neighbouring Palwal’s SP, Lokendra Singh.
When the violence would not ease, the government pulled Lokendra Singh off the job the very next day and handed Nuh to Bijarniya, then SP of Bhiwani. Singla returned from leave on 2 August that year, but the government kept Bijarniya in charge regardless, and on 4 August made him full-time SP of Nuh, removing Singla altogether.
The weeks that followed saw a string of arrests, and at least three men accused in the violence were shot and injured in separate police encounters between 10 and 24 August—Saikul Khan near Tauru, Aamir in the Tauru-Aravalli hills, and Osama alias Pehelwan near the Ujina canal. Police said all three had opened fire first and were hit in retaliatory firing.
Earlier too, Bijarniya had already served a year and a half in Nuh, a posting remembered for a string of major crackdowns that left local criminals wary, before he was moved out as part of a routine transfer.
The rest of Saturday’s reshuffle
Saturday’s first list also moved around Lokender Singh, who held additional charge of the newly-formed Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), besides the charge of the state’s elite Commando Police, to SP of the State Crime Branch.
Surinder Singh Bhoria, SP (STF Panchkula), has been transferred to Madhuban as Commandant of the 5th Battalion, Haryana Armed Police.
Vikrant Bhushan takes over as SP of the Haryana State Narcotics Control Bureau in Panchkula, relieving Srishti Gupta. Amit Yashvardhan gets additional charge of Commando Police, with its headquarters in Newal, Karnal.
Two women IPS officers effectively swapped postings. Medha Bhushan, who was to take over as SP Palwal under Thursday’s order, will instead be SP Panipat. Deepti Garg, previously DCP Jhajjar and named SP Panipat Thursday, goes to Palwal instead.
Police sources said Garg is originally from Panipat district, and postings in one’s home district are restricted under service rules, which is why she had not taken charge there. HPS officer Anil Kumar, earlier SP STF Karnal, has been appointed SP of the Haryana State Narcotics Control Bureau, Karnal.
In a separate order, the government also cancelled Thursday’s postings for two more officers, leaving them where they were: Deepak Kumar Jewaria remains SP Narnaul instead of moving to SP Law and Order and SP ERSS, and Prabina P. remains DCP Manesar, with additional charge of Commandant of the 4th IRB, instead of moving to Narnaul.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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