Punjab-cadre IPS officer Samant Goel is new RAW chief, Kashmir expert Arvind Kumar to head IB

Mukesh Ranjan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 26

Senior IPS officers Samant Kumar Goel and Arvind Kumar were appointed chiefs of the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB), respectively, on Wednesday.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved their appointments for a two-year tenure, an order issued by the Personnel Ministry said.

Goel, a Punjab-cadre officer, will succeed Anil K Dhasmana, who is retiring after two and a half years of tenure, on June 30 at the chief of India’s external spy agency, while Assam-Meghalaya cadre officer Kumar will take the reins of the internal intelligence agency from Rajiv Jain.

The ACC is learnt to have also cleared a proposal relating to empanelment of 1986-batch IPS officer in the rank of Director-General. Sources in the North Block said, Home Minister Amit Shah, as the other member of the ACC, had signed the file before leaving for Jammu & Kashmir today.  

Both Dhasmana and Jain were appointed in December 2016 and were given a six-month extension as the country moved into election mode.

Before his appointment as R&AW chief, Goel was heading operations for the agency and was instrumental in planning the February 2019 Balakot air strikes and also the 2016 surgical strikes.

Kumar has been involved in tackling Left-wing extremism at the IB. He is currently holding the post of special director, Kashmir, in the agency and has been closely involved in formulating and executing the Centre’s approach on terrorism in the Valley.

Goel has spent a considerable part of his career in Punjab, where he was posted to oversee security, intelligence and the border range. The IPS officer came to Delhi on his first assignment at the R&AW in 2001 and has stayed back.

In contrast, Kumar, who began his career with Assam Police, had moved to the IB early in his career after a stint as Superintendent of Police in Sonitpur, one of the state’s largest districts. He never went back to Assam Police and continued to work at the Centre.