Intelligence Bureau Chief Tapan Kumar Deka gets 1 year extension

The Appointment Committee of the Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved an extension of one year service to the incumbent Intelligence Bureau Director General Tapan Kumar Deka. 

According to the Department of Personnel and Training, Tapan Kumar Deka will continue in office till 30 June 2025.

Tapan Kumar Deka was appointed as the Director General of the Intelligence Bureau in 2022 for a term of two years after the retirement of Arvind Kumar. Tapan Kumar Deka’s term as the Director General of the Intelligence Bureau was to end on 30 June 2024.

About Tapan Kumar Deka

Tapan Kumar Deka is a 1988 Himachal Pradesh cadre Indian Police Service (IPS) officer. He worked for almost two decades in the Intelligence Bureau before being appointed as the Director General of the Intelligence Bureau.

Before becoming the chief of the Intelligence Bureau, Tapan Deka headed the Operations desk of the Intelligence Bureau and was tracking terrorists and religious radicalisation for the past two decades.

Tapan Deka is given credit for breaking the back of the terrorist organisation Indian Mujahideen. He was also in the team that investigated the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai by the Pakistani terrorist group.

About Intelligence Bureau 

The Intelligence Bureau is one of the oldest intelligence organisations still active in the world.

The genesis of the Intelligence Bureau is traced to the setting up of the Central Special Branch by the British Government on 23rd December 1887. 

The Central Special Branch was later renamed as the Central Criminal Intelligence Department, then to the Central Intelligence Department in 1918 and finally to the Intelligence Bureau in 1920.

The Intelligence Bureau is responsible for counterterrorism, counterintelligence, intelligence collection in border areas, infrastructure protection, and anti-secession activities.

The Intelligence Bureau is responsible for collection of intelligence concerning internal security and provides such information to the relevant security agencies.

Until 1968 the Intelligence Bureau handled both internal and external intelligence. In 1968 the external intelligence function was given to a newly created agency, Research and Analysis Wing (R&W). 

First Indian to be appointed as the Director General of the Intelligence Bureau was T.G.Sanjeevi Pillai (12 April 1947-July 1950).