The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has appointed senior IPS officer Rajesh Kumar as the Director General of Police (DGP) of Arunachal Pradesh, with immediate effect. Kumar, a 1995-batch officer of the AGMUT cadre, replaces incumbent DGP Shiv Darshan Singh Jamwal, who has been transferred to Delhi. Both officers belong to the same 1995-batch AGMUT cadre, and both postings remain in force until further orders, according to the ministry’s order.
Kumar returns after central deputation, having served as Special Director General in the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) since 2018. His premature repatriation was approved by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, following a Home Ministry proposal. Jamwal now moves to an assignment in Delhi. The government order itself does not specify reasons for the change.
A change at a sensitive moment
The leadership change comes at a sensitive moment, with protests and unrest continuing over the proposed Siang Upper Multipurpose Project. Demonstrations have included shutdowns in Siang, Upper Siang and East Siang districts, and activists have raised concerns over alleged police action, arrests and detentions linked to the movement — allegations that remain contested and unverified through any completed inquiry. Police in the affected districts face the difficult dual task of maintaining order during charged protests while keeping public trust intact.
What the new police chief faces
For the incoming DGP, the immediate challenge is practical: ensuring demonstrations are managed professionally, avoiding escalation, and keeping communication open with community organisations. Trust between police and residents in the Siang belt will shape whether the wider dialogue promised by the state government over the dam project can proceed calmly. Routine policing across a frontier state — border-area security, crime prevention and public safety in remote districts — continues alongside.
The AGMUT connection
The AGMUT cadre covers Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram and several Union Territories, including Delhi, and its officers routinely move between state and central assignments. Kumar’s long central stint with the CRPF, a force deployed heavily in internal-security duties, gives him experience of large-scale force management that the state posting will now test in a very different setting: a sparsely populated hill state where policing depends heavily on local relationships.
Security questions have dominated recent news from the region. Three BSF personnel were recently injured in a clash in a Tripura border village, while security agencies have shifted strategy against Myanmar-linked drug cartels operating across the Northeast border. Against that backdrop, the appointment is more than a routine transfer: it puts a new officer at the head of the force at the very moment public confidence in policing is under strain.
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