PATNA, June 24 -- It has taken 42 days since the state power regulator red-flagged a transfer, and a change of guards at the helm, for the Bihar State Power Holding Company Limited (BSPHCL) to reverse the movement order of its electrical superintending engineer (ESE), probing the alleged bungling in the purchase of power transformers, from the electrical supply circle Muzaffarpur to the Consumer Grievance Redressal Forum (CGRF) Kishanganj, said officials on Monday. The BSPHCL, on June 19, complied with the regulator's directions of May 7, transferring the said ESE back to Muzaffarpur, a week after Manoj Kumar Singh, a 2009 batch IAS officer, took charge as Bihar's energy secretary and chairman-cum-managing director (CMD) of the BSPHCL from Pankaj Kumar Pal, a 2002 batch IAS officer. Pankaj Rajesh, the engineer in question, was part of a probe to check the alleged supply of underrated transformers to the North Bihar Power Distribution Company Limited (NBPDCL) when he was suddenly moved as ESE of Muzaffarpur to Kishanganj as the chairman of the district CGRF in April, swapping positions with Ajay Kumar Ratnakar, another ESE. Rajesh was not the only one to be transferred. Niraj Kumar Singh, an assistant electrical engineer (AEE), tasked to escort a transformer for testing at the Central Power Research Institute (CPRI), Bhopal, was also shifted from NBPDCL's Muzaffarpur to the Special Task Force wing in Bhagalpur, under the South Bihar Power Distribution Company Limited (SBPDCL), raising many eyebrows. Later, Pal wrote to the director general, CPRI on April 28, asking him to put on hold the testing of 10 MVA, 33/11 kV transformer, which the MD of NBPDCL had requested for on April 21. In his letter to the CPRI chief, Pal said a civil court in Calcutta, through an ad-interim injunction order of April 25, had restrained the Bihar power firm from conducting any testing of the product (read transformer) till further hearing of the title suit petition (No. 713/2025 of the Rajasthan Transformers and Switchgears versus NBPDCL & Laser Power & Infra Private Limited) on May 15. The case has since not come up for hearing, said officials in the know of the matter. Coming back to the transfers, the BSPHCL had transferred the two officials associated with the probe without the recommendation of the then managing director (MD) of the NBPDCL. The BSPHCL even earned the wrath of the BERC for transferring Rajesh as the chairperson of the CGRF, Kishnaganj, without its consent. The BERC, headed by former chief secretary Amir Subhani, on May 7 refused to grant post-facto approval to Rajesh swapping positions with Ratnakar as the chairman of the CGRF, Kishanganj. The regulator also reminded the BSPHCL that it had to propose to the commission a panel of names of at least three officers, and appoint one based on the approval of the commission, as per paragraph 2.5 of the BERC (Consumer Grievance Redressal Forum & Electricity Ombudsman) Regulation, 2017. Despite the regulator's explicit directions, Pal did not rescind his decision. It was only after Singh joined as the CMD of the BSPHCL on June 11 that transfer orders were issued on June 19, reverting Rajesh and Ratnakar to their earlier positions. During Pal's regime of nearly 10-months as the CMD, the BSPHCL had transferred around 250 officials in its four subsidiaries - the two discoms, the generation and the transmission companies. Most of the transfers were done without formal recommendations of the respective MDs, said officials familiar with the matter. In fact, two officers-on-special duty (OSD), each of the MD, NBPDCL, and the MD, Bihar State Power Transmission Company Limited (BSPTCL), were also shifted without formally consulting the MD. Anil Kumar, a retired officer of the Bihar administrative services, who was general manager, human resources and administration in the BSPTCL, in his letter of May 14, attributed his resignation to the pressure caused due to Pal's "inappropriate" and "immoral" orders. Officials close to Kumar said that Pal would give him verbal orders to not send some files to the MD, even if he would ask for them on several crucial occasions too. The Hindustan Times, Patna edition, carried a report (titled "Bihar power utility's GM resigns citing CMD's 'immoral order'") about Kumar's resignation on its front page on May 17....