CHENNAI: In yet another shake up of the bureaucratic brass ahead of the April 23 Assembly polls, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday directed the State government to remove Chennai city police Commissioner A Arun from the post and appoint ADGP Abhin Dinesh Modak in his place immediately.

Modak took charge on Friday night itself, and will now oversee law and order in the capital city during a critical period of poll preparedness and enforcement of the model code of conduct ahead of a tightly fought election. He was serving as ADGP Enforcement and had also worked as Tambaram police Commissioner in the recent past.

In the directive, issued by ECI secretary Lata Tripathi to Chief Secretary M Sai Kumar, the poll panel stressed that the officer who is being transferred out from the post shall not be assigned any election-related duties until the completion of the electoral process.

This is the third major intervention by the Election Commission, which had earlier shunted out Chief Secretary N Muruganandam and Head of Police Force DGP G Venkatraman. Sai Kumar was appointed as the Chief Secretary, while senior IPS officer Sandeep Rai Rathore was posted as the State police chief.

In another move, it had transferred senior officer Dadivson Devasirvatham as the head of the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption and posted Sandeep Mittal in his place.