Under fire over the molestation of a woman in a busy Patna street, the Bihar government on Saturday transferred 14 senior police officers, including an inspector general, deputy inspector general and five senior superintendents of police.

As the incident on Thursday sparked an outrage threatening to sully the state government's image, IG (central zone) Sunil Kumar, DIG (central range) J S Gangwar, SSP (Patna) R Malar Vizhi and Superintendent of Police (City) Anwar Hussain were shifted.

Three other SPs of Patna East, Patna West and Patna rural and all seven deputy superintendents of police, who are entrusted with the task of maintaining peace in the state capital, have been transferred.

 N Rai will be the new IG of central zone, Jitendra Kumar has been appointed DIG of central range, Vineet Vinayak the senior superintendent of police and Manu Maharaj SP (city). Sunil Kumar has been posted as Special Secretary (Home), Gangwar as DIG (personnel), Vizhi as AIG (police headquarters) and Hussain as SP (Sitamarhi).

Additional Director General of Police (Headquarters) Neelmani said that the transfers had been ordered to tone up the law enforcing machinery in the state capital and had nothing to do with Thursday's incident of stripping of a woman on Exhibition Road.

While acknowledging that the transfers were aimed at refurbishing the image of the police force, particularly in Patna, Neelmani refused to admit those were ordered due to the Opposition's criticism of the Nitish Kumar government over the stripping incident.

"The media is a better judge....I have nothing more to say. Who can deny the fact that these transfers have been done in the aftermath of the shameful incident on Thursday," he said. Besides, 10 Indian Police Service and 15 Bihar police service officers were transferred in a routine reshuffle today.