Senior IPS officer Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal has been appointed as the Tamil Nadu police chief

The Tamil Nadu government has written to the Union Home Ministry to release Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal from the BSF, according to official sources.

The Tamil Nadu government on Friday (May 29, 2026) appointed senior IPS officer Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal as the director general of police and head of the police force.

A 1994 batch IPS officer, he is serving as DGP in the Border Security Force (BSF) in Delhi. He replaces DGP/HoPF Sandeep Rai Rathore. He was in the panel of three IPS officers recommended by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) as suitable for appointment to the top post. The Tamil Nadu government has written to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to release Dr. Aggarwala of the BSF, official sources said.

Pursuant to the directions of the Supreme Court in the Prakash Singh case, Dr. Aggarwal tenure of at least two years. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he served as the Commissioner of Police in Chennai where he launched various programmes, including Drive Against Drugs and ‘Kaaval Karangal’.

He was also the Commissioner of Police in Madurai and Tirunelveli. Dr. Aggarwal was the state police nodal officer of the Election Commission of India in the last Lok Sabha elections and member-secretary of the Tamil Nadu Police Commission.

Communal murders

As Inspector General of Police in the Crime Branch-CID, he oversaw investigations by the Special Investigation Division into a series of communal murders across the state and also the sensational train robbery in which a North Indian gang broke into the Salem-Chennai Express bus and stole ₹5.78 million belonging to the Central Bank of India.

In his previous stint at the Centre, he worked in the Central Bureau of Investigation as its Joint Director in Chandigarh.

In the BSF, he served as the Commander of the Eastern Command, responsible for over 4,000 km of the challenging Indo-Bangladesh border. Dr Aggarwal is a recipient of the President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service and the Police Medal of Merit. Hailing from Bathinda, Punjab, he received his PhD from Manonmaniam Sundaranar University.

Unreasonable delay

With effect from September 1, 2025, a regular DGP/HoPF was to be appointed in place of the then incumbent Shankar Jiwal, who attained superannuation. However, the process was delayed for various reasons, including several contempt cases.

Published – 29 May 2026 21:45 IST