CRPF chief Vikram Srivastava shunted out

The government removed CRPF chief Vikram Srivastava and brought in K Vijay Kumar.

New Delhi: In a sudden move, the government on Saturday shunted out CRPF chief Vikram Srivastava and brought in
K Vijay Kumar, who had shot to fame when he led the operations
to eliminate forest brigand Veerappan, as his replacement.

Srivastava, who was made the CRPF Director General in
February this year, has been made the chief of Bureau of
Police Research and Development in Delhi.

He had come under attack after the Dantewada massacre
in which 75 CRPF men lost their lives in a Maoist attack on
April 6 in Chhattisgarh.

58-year-old Vijay Kumar, a Tamil Nadu cadre IPS
officer, had achieved fame when he headed the Special Task
Force (STF) for a long time and strategised operations that
culminated in the elimination of the dreaded sandalwood
smuggler Veerapan in October 2004.

Vijay Kumar headed the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel
National Police Academy in Hyderabad from 2008. Earlier, he
had also had a stint in BSF as an Inspector General in Kashmir
for two years.

Winner of President`s Police Medal for gallantry, the
1975 batch officer will head a force of nearly three lakh
personnel.

In deciding on Vijay Kumar`s appointment, the
government may have superceded two senior IPS officers Vijay
Raman (1975 batch) and NK Tripathi (1974 batch). Both of them
are from the Madhya Pradesh cadre and are presently posted as
Special Directors General in the CRPF.

Srivastava is a 1973 batch IPS officer from the Uttar
Pradesh cadre and takes over as BPRD chief from Prasun
Mukherjee, who retired on September 30.

PTI

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