The cop who dismantled UP’s crime machine
When Yogi Adityanath assumed office as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in 2017, he directed the state police to take stringent action against criminals, declaring a policy of zero tolerance toward crime. Armed with this clear mandate, the police soon launched a war against organised crime. Leading this operation was Prashant Kumar, the state’s top cop, who soon became synonymous with the elimination of dreaded gangsters.
Kumar was handpicked for the challenging task of dismantling criminal networks because of his decades-long experience in policing. His career as an IPS officer took him across Uttar Pradesh—from Jaunpur and Varanasi in the east to Meerut and Ghaziabad in the west—regions marked by caste conflict, communal tension, gang warfare, and Naxal violence. All civil servants have a fund of stories about their field experiences, but Kumar stands out in this category.
It is no surprise then that investigative journalist Anirudhya Mitra chose to profile Kumar in his book The Enforcer: An IPS Officer’s War on Crime in India’s Badlands. Written in an engaging style, the biography portrays Kumar as a fearless, no-nonsense officer, even as it sometimes borders on glorifying him.
Kumar shot to fame when Yogi Adityanath entrusted him with the mission of making UP crime-free. What followed was a series of police actions described as ‘encounter killings’, in which notorious mafia dons and gangsters were killed or injured. Figures such as Atiq Ahmed, Mukhtar Ansari, Munir, Sanjay Singh, and Anil Dujana died either in jail or while allegedly trying to escape police custody. The UP police faced flak for these incidents, with human rights activists accusing the force of bypassing legal procedures, and turning encounters into a norm. However, subsequent inquiries cleared the police of wrongdoing. Unfazed, Kumar asserted that police only returned fire in self-defence. “Policemen are not given arms for decoration,” he stated firmly.
Tracing Kumar’s early assignments, Mitra portrays a man constantly on the move, transferred from one district to another with little time for his IAS officer wife, Dimple Verma, and daughter, Shivani. Kumar accepted these frequent transfers without demur, a lesson he learnt early in his career. When he once questioned a transfer to a remote hill district, his superior said, “If you want to grow professionally, your professional commitment cannot be seen as negotiable. People shouldn’t think you are unwilling to take on a challenging posting.” From then on, Kumar never resisted any posting, no matter how difficult.
From the crime-infested Jaunpur in the east, Kumar faced a dramatic change when he was posted to Ghaziabad in western Uttar Pradesh—often referred to as the ‘Wild West’. The description in the book captures it well: “Land mafias, organised crime syndicates, political strongmen, and gun culture were as common in the region as wheat fields and sugarcane,” writes Mitra.
What followed were relentless encounters, crackdowns, and several high-profile investigations, including the sensational Nitish Katara murder case. The book provides a detailed account of how clues were painstakingly pieced together, witnesses traced, and suspects arrested, even though the perpetrators turned out to be the son and nephew of powerful politician DP Yadav.
Mitra highlights that policing under Kumar extended beyond fighting crime. During the Covid-19 pandemic, he supervised efforts to manage the rush of migrants, provide medication and oxygen cylinders, and transport the sick to hospitals. But there is only a brief mention of the large number of bodies found floating in the Ganga during the pandemic. The UP government’s dismissal of these reports as exaggerated is accepted by Mitra without question. Similarly, while Mitra praises the state’s arrangements for the Mahakumbh, he glosses over the January 29, 2025, stampede at Triveni Sangam.
Kumar retired earlier this year after an eventful and controversial career. But his legacy endures: an energised cop equipped with both technical expertise and field preparedness. Apart from a lucid account of Kumar’s career, the book also provides a glimpse into the interplay of politics, crime, and policing in Uttar Pradesh.