New Delhi: The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved the appointment of senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Tapan Kumar Deka as the chief of Intelligence Bureau (IB). He is an IPS officer of 1988 batch of Himachal Pradesh cadre.

Deka was currently handling the operations wing of the IB. He takes over from Arvinda Kumar, who will demit office on June 30 after getting a one-year extension last year. Deka will have a tenure of two years, according to an official order issued by the Personnel Ministry.

Deka, who hails from Assam, was personally sent by Union Home Minister Amit Shah to his home state to handle the volatile situation that arose following the large-scale violence that rocked Assam after the enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Act in 2019.

Off-late, he has been the go-to man for the government on the affairs of Jammu and Kashmir as he has vast experience in handling Pakistan-sponsored terrorism in the sensitive Union Territory. The fate of A S Rajan, a 1987 batch IPS officer, Special Director in IB, whom Deka has superseded was not known yet. He has service tenure till February next year. /BI/