By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 30 Nov: A flamboyant and a sharp police officer, Abhinav Kumar (IPS batch 1997) is probably among the youngest officers to take over as DGP of a state. Kumar, born in Bareilly in UP, has an old Dehradun connection, having been an alumnus of the renowned The Doon School and has also passed out from the prestigious Harvard University. His wife Namrata Kumar is an Indian Foreign Service Officer who is presently serving as Indian ambassador in Slovenia. Kumar had begun his professional life as a journalist with the India Today Group before becoming an IPS officer. However, his passion for writing continues and he regularly contributes articles in leading newspapers of the country and also in Garhwal Post. For a while, he was also a copy writer with a leading advertisement agency HTA in Delhi. With India Today, he worked from April 1995 to December 1996. During his tenure with India Today, he sharpened his writing and analytical skills, resulting in a good understanding of the functioning of the media.
Kumar was selected as an IPS officer in 1997 and was allocated UP Cadre and joined as ASP in Dehradun in undivided UP in 1999. Though his cadre remained UP, he preferred to serve in Uttarakhand Police and while not on Central deputation remained posted in Uttarakhand only. He was SP Pauri from 2001 till April 2002. Two recruitment drives were conducted under his guidance and he oversaw the first Uttarakhand state assembly elections in February 2002, while being SP Pauri. He came to Dehradun for two years in 2002 and served as ADC to Governor till June 2004, serving under two governors during this period. He was then posted as SSP Haridwar and remained SSP Haridwar till 2007 when he earned an image of a strict police officer. Several encounters were also held and a large number of hardcore criminals were arrested under his leadership in Haridwar during this time. Later, he was transferred to the Police Headquarters as Officer with DGP and SSP STF till July 2009. He was posted as SSP Dehradun till July 2010. He later joined as Additional Secretary to the CM of Uttarakhand for a brief period before being transferred as SSP US Nagar and also served as DIG/SSP US Nagar on promotion. Then he also served as DIG CID, and looked after the responsible work of CID Headquarters, Sector Dehradun and Sector Haldwani, handling some of the most sensitive cases of the state, reporting to the ADG in this capacity.
He later went to the Centre on deputation and served as Private Secretary to Union Minister Shashi Tharoor. While on his Central deputation, he served as DIG with ITBP in DTE General from July 2014 to March 2016 and then took charge as DGP ITBP in Ladakh.
He was later promoted as IG BSF in Western Command and served there till August 2018.
He joined BSF as IG and served in Kashmir and this tenure was very eventful for him. As IG Kashmir, 14 battalions were under his command and 4 sector headquarters. He was also part of the Unified Command that oversaw the abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories.
He returned to Uttarakhand and took charge as ADG Administration, Uttarakhand Police, in-charge at Police Headquarters, in December 2020 and later took charge as ADG Administration, Uttarakhand Police at Police Headquarter. Soon after Pushkar Singh Dhami became the CM, he was given an additional charge as Additional Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand from 9 July to 20 April 2022. He also assumed additional charge as Special Principal Secretary, Youth Welfare and Sports, Uttarakhand. He held additional charge as Special Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister.
