IPS Officer Tapan Kumar Deka has been appointed as the new Director of the Intelligence Bureau (IB).

This was approved by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet on Friday.

Deka has replaced Arvinda Kumar whose extended tenure ends on June 30. Deka has been appointed for a tenure of two years from the date of assumption of the charge of the post or until further orders.

Tapan Deka is currently heads the Operations desk of the Intelligence Bureau and has been tracking terrorists and religious radicalization for the past two decades. Deka, a 1988 batch Himachal Pradesh cadre officer, is essentially an expert on north-east affairs and was sent by Home Minister Amit Shah to Assam after the anti-CAA violence broke out in 2019.

Deka was the man who broke the back of Indian Mujahideen group as also the man who investigated the 26/11 attacks.

By appointing Tapan Deka as the Director of IB, the government has picked up an officer over some four seniors in the Intelligence Bureau with the objective of adding more teeth to the intelligence agency.

Deka was a former All Assam Students' Union (AASU) leader, and he was selected for IPS in his first attempt.

Meanwhile, the tenure of Samant Goel, who has been heading the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), has been extended by one more year, the ministry said in another order.