Neeraj Kumar is new police commissioner

Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of 1976-batch Neeraj Kumar will be the new Commissioner of Delhi Police succeeding B K Gupta who retires on June 30.

Kumar, an IPS officer of AGMUT (Arunachal-Goa-Mizoram and other Union Territories) cadre and currently Director General of Tihar Jail, will take charge from Gupta on July 1. Kumar, recipient of the President’s Police Medal for Meritorious Service in 1992 and President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service in 1999, told Deccan Herald, “I am honoured. It is a big responsibility and will give best.”

The next police chief of the metropolis from Bihar did his graduation and post-graduation from St Stephen’s College and joined the IPS in 1976.

In his career spanning 36 years, Kumar has solved many high profile cases and nabbed most wanted terrorists and underworld dons.

As DCP (Crime), he unearthed the massive multi-crore racket in state-run lotteries in 1992 that led to the banning of lotteries in the country.

In 1993, he went on deputation to the CBI where he served until 2002. In the CBI, Kumar led the investigations in the Mumbai serial blasts. Under his leadership, the Special Task Force (STF), created in the CBI to investigate the case, arrested seven members of the Memon family and 16 other absconders. 

The STF also cracked the serial train blast cases of 1994, which occurred on the first anniversary of Babri Masjid demolition in various prestigious trains, and unearthed a terrorist outfit called Ahle Hadees.

His tenure in the CBI is also highlighted by the solving of the Meenakshi Amman Temple Blast case of Madurai; the arrest and deportation of American Center attack mastermind Aftab Ansari from Dubai; the arrest of Abdul Lateef, a notorious underworld don of Gujarat; Romesh Sharma, a Dawood Ibrahim henchman masquerading as a politician based in Delhi and the cracking of the cricket match fixing scandal.

Jagtar Singh Tara, the first accused to be nabbed in the assassination of the then Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Beant Singh, was arrested by him.

On his return to Delhi Police as Special Commissioner of Police, he was responsible for the entire planning and execution of the police and security arrangements for the Commonwealth Games 2010.

As DG (Prisons) at Tihar, he introduced several innovative measures like the literacy programme “Padho aur Padhao” and campus placement for reformed prisoners, through which nearly four hundred inmates have been given jobs. He has also started a semi-open jail in Delhi.