The post of the Director General (DG) of the agency was lying vacant for about last two months following the retirement of incumbent S C Sinha. Sinha was later appointed as a member of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).
Kumar is a 1979-batch Haryana cadre officer and he takes over the top post of the probe agency at a time when it is investigating important cases like Hyderabad blasts and the recent Bodh Gaya blasts in Bihar.