K Vijay Kumar resigns as security advisor of MHA citing personal reasons

Decorated police officer K Vijay Kumar, who was credited for eliminating forest brigand Veerappan, has resigned as the senior security advisor in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

Kumar, who put in his papers sometimes ago due to personal reasons, has vacated his accommodation in Delhi and relocated to Chennai.

"I am now based in Chennai after I decided to end my stint with the MHA due to personal reasons," he told PTI over the phone.

Kumar expressed his gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval, MHA officials and the chiefs of police forces of all the states for extending cooperation throughout his tenure.

Kumar was mostly advising the government on issues of Left-Wing Extremism (LWE), besides on Jammu and Kashmir.

The 1975-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer was appointed as the senior security officer of the MHA after his superannuation from service in 2012 as the director general of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

He served as the advisor to the governor of Jammu and Kashmir before being re-appointed as the senior security advisor in the MHA in 2019.

Kumar has also served as the chief of the Special Task Force (STF), Tamil Nadu, which was tasked with hunting down Veerappan, the commissioner of the Chennai Police and the inspector general of the Border Security Force (BSF) in Kashmir.

Veerappan was killed in 2004 in a meticulously planned operation led by Kumar in Tamil Nadu.