UP gets acting DGP for fourth consecutive term, Akhilesh attacks government

LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday appointed Director General (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar as the acting state police chief, the fourth such appointment in a row over the past 20 months.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav slammed the Yogi Adityanath government for the appointment of another "acting" DGP instead of making a permanent appointment.

Kumar will replace incumbent acting DGP Vijay Kumar who is retiring on Wednesday.

"Prashant Kumar has been appointed as acting DGP of Uttar Pradesh," a senior official told PTI.

A 1990 batch IPS officer, Kumar belongs to Bihar.

After his appointment, Kumar had a courtesy meeting with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

According to an official order of the appointment by Principal Secretary (Home) Sanjay Prasad, Kumar will continue to have charge of law and order and economic offences wing (EOW) departments which he held at present, besides being head of the department.

This is the fourth consecutive time that UP has got an acting police chief. No full-time DGP has been appointed after the removal of Mukul Goel on May 11, 2022 for "not taking interest in departmental work and inefficiency".

Goel, a 1987 batch IPS officer, is currently posted as DG of the civil defence department and is set to retire next month.

After Goel, D S Chauhan took over as the acting DGP and retired in April 2023. Later, R K Vishwakarma served as the acting DGP for over a month before Vijay Kumar was appointed to the post on May 31, 2023.

The appointment of Kumar prompted Yadav to attack the BJP government in the state.

Yadav, in a post in Hindi on X, said, "It seems that UP is once again going to get an acting DGP. The public is asking whether the game of making acting DGP is happening every time because of the tussle between Delhi and Lucknow or because of the nexus between the government and the criminals."