The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday appointed DG (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar, a 1990 batch IPS officer, as the acting new chief of the state police.

Prashant Kumar has been given the responsibility after the retirement of acting DGP Vijay Kumar today, officials here confirmed.

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Prashant Kumar has become the acting DGP, superseding 16 officers. He was handling the responsibility of law and order for the past three and a half years. Apart from this, he also has the responsibility of Economic Offences Wing (EOW) and the State Special Investigation Team (SIT) .

This is the fourth consecutive time that an acting DGP has been appointed in UP.

The new acting DGP met Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath at his residence after the decision of his appointment.

Prashant Kumar, originally a resident of Siwan in Bihar, is considered to be one of the favourite officers of Chief Minister Adityanath. During his stay as ADG, Zone Meerut, he encountered many criminals, after which he was made ADG Law and Order. Thereafter, he prepared a list of 66 mafias of the state and started tightening the noose of the law. Under his leadership, STF and district police continued the process of encounters.

It is noteworthy that Prashant Kumar has received the President’s Gallantry Medal four times. He has completed MSc, MPhil and MBA. His wife Dimple Verma is a retired IAS officer and currently a member of RERA.

The officers superseded with this new appointment are Mukul Goyal, Anand Kumar, Shafi Ahsan Rizvi, Ashish Gupta, Aditya Mishra, PV Ramashastri, Sandeep Salunkhe, Daljit Singh Chaudhary, Renuka Mishra, Bijay Kumar Maurya, Satya Narayan Sabat, Avinash Chandra, Sanjay M. Tarde, MK Bashal, Tanuja Srivastava and Subhash Chandra.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav has made critical comments over this appointment. On his social media handle, Akhilesh posted that it seems that once again UP was going to get an acting DGP.

“The public is asking whether the game of making acting DGP is happening every time because of the conflict between Delhi-Lucknow or because of the nexus of the government with the criminals,” he questioned.