Days after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath removed Director General of Police (DGP) Mukul Goel from his post for “inefficiency and neglecting his work”, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav  dubbed the reasons “childish”.

The former UP chief minister also said that the move has demoralised the police force.

“Removing the DGP of UP on the allegation that he used to disregard government work, did not take interest in departmental work and was inefficient, are very childish excuses. This has demoralized the police force,” Yadav tweeted.

He further questioned the credibility of those who appointed Goel to the top post. “Was his eligibility not checked at the time of his appointment, so those who selected him were also guilty,” Yadav said.

In an unprecedented move, DGP Mukul Goel was removed from his post on Wednesday. Goel was removed from the post of DGP for neglecting official work, not taking interest in departmental work and inefficiency, according to an official statement.

A 1987-batch IPS officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre, Goel was appointed as the Uttar Pradesh police chief in June last year. Before that, he had served as an additional director general of the Border Security Force.

He has now been made the Director General (DG) of the Civil Defence department.

Two days after his removal, Director General (Intelligence) Devendra Singh Chauhan on Friday assumed an additional charge as Uttar Pradesh DGP.

A 1988-batch IPS officer, Chauhan took the additional charge of Director General of Police (DGP) at the police headquarters in Lucknow.

He will hold the additional charge till the appointment of a permanent DGP, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Kumar Awasthi said on Thursday.

Earlier, after the removal of Goel on Wednesday, ADG (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar was given the additional charge of the state police chief.