Lokanath Behera (born 17 June 1961) is a retired

Indian Police Service The Indian Police Service ( IPS) is a civil service under the All India Services. It replaced the Indian Imperial Police in 1948, a year after India became independent from the British Raj. Along with the Indian Administrative Service (IAS ...

(I.P.S.) officer. He was State Police Chief and

Director General of Police Director general of police (DGP) is a rank in the Indian Police Service, held by the highest ranking police officer in a State or a Union Territory of India, typically heading the state or the UT police force. The DGP is appointed by the cab ...

(DGP) of the Kerala State Police. He was the former Director of Vigilance in the state of Kerala, after T. P. Senkumar IPS was reappointed as the Kerala State Police Chief and Director General of Police following the verdict of the honorable

Supreme Court of India The Supreme Court of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme judicial authority of India and is the highest court of the Republic of India under the constitution. It is the most senior constitutional court, has the final decision in all legal matters ...

. Behera is from

Odisha Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...

. He was one of the founding members of the

National Investigation Agency The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is the primary counter-terrorist task force of India. The agency is empowered to deal with the investigation of terror related crimes across states without special permission from the states under written ...

(NIA). He was also instrumental in modernizing the Kerala police, equipping it with modern vehicles and state-of-the-art small arms and non-lethal weaponry. He was reappointed as Managing Director of Kochi Metro on 28 August 2021 by the Government of Kerala.

Education

Behera holds a master's degree in Geology from

Utkal University Utkal University (UU) is a Public university in Bhubaneswar, Khordha district, Khordha, Odisha, and is the oldest university in Odisha, the state, and the 17th-oldest university in India. It is a teaching-cum-affiliating university. The pre ...

Career

Behera was appointed to the IPS in 1985 and is a part of the Kerala cadre. He started his career as an ASP, in

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

and also served as Commissioner of Police in

Kochi Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of K ...

and DCP in

Thiruvananthapuram Thiruvananthapuram (; ), also known by its former name Trivandrum (), is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala. It is the most populous city in Kerala with a population of 957,730 as of 2011. The encompassing urban agglomeration populati ...

. He was then appointed as SP and later DIG in the

Central Bureau of Investigation The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is the premier investigating agency of India. It operates under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. Originally set up to investigate bribery and governmen ...

. He was involved in the investigation of sensitive cases such as the

Graham Staines Graham Stuart Staines (18 January 1941 – 23 January 1999) was an Australian Christian missionary, who along with his two sons, Philip (aged 10) and Timothy (aged 6), was burnt to death in India by members of a Hindu fundamentalist group named ...

murder case,

Purulia arms drop case The Purulia arms drop happened on 17 December 1995 when unauthorised arms were dropped from an Antonov An-26 aircraft in Purulia district in the Indian state of West Bengal. The chief accused "Kim Davy" (real name Niels Holck, alias Niels Chris ...

, Mumbai serial blast case, etc. In 2009, he joined the

(NIA) and was one of the founder members. At the NIA, he headed the Terror Financing and Fake Currency specialized cell of the NIA. Prior to being appointed as the DGP of the

Kerala Police The Kerala Police is the law enforcement agency for the Indian state of Kerala. Kerala Police has its headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram, the state capital. The motto of the force is "Mridhu Bhave Dhrida Kruthye" which means "Soft in Temperamen ...

, he served as Director, Kerala Fire And Rescue Services. He was a part of the team that traveled to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

to question

David Headley David Coleman Headley (born Daood Sayed Gilani; June 30, 1960) is an American terrorist. He is currently serving a 35-year sentence in the United States after pleading guilty to 12 international terrorism charges. It has been alleged that Headl ...

in 2010. Behera retired from service on 30 June 2021.

Awards

While on deputation at the NIA, Behera was awarded the President's Police Medal for Distinguished Service in 2009.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Behera, Lokanath 1961 births Living people Utkal University alumni Indian Police Service officers Indian civil servants All India Services Indian government officials