Mahesh Dixit (Photo: X)
New Delhi: The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has cleared the appointment of senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Mahesh Dixit as the next director of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), the country’s premier domestic intelligence agency. Dixit will take over from Tapan Kumar Deka, a 1988-batch IPS officer of the Himachal Pradesh cadre who has led the IB since July 2022 and whose extended tenure concludes at the end of this month.
Born in 1967, Dixit is a 1993-batch IPS officer who, over three decades of service, has built a reputation as one of the more experienced intelligence professionals within the central security establishment. His career trajectory has been shaped by critical postings, including a tenure as head of the Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau in Srinagar, where he oversaw operations across Jammu & Kashmir, and Leh.
Officials familiar with his career credit him with playing a significant part in stabilizing the region and monitoring security threats in the period following the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019. During that phase, he worked closely with the Union home minister, Amit Shah, on intelligence preparations and related security measures.
In September 2024, the government promoted four IPS officers of the 1993 batch from the rank of additional director to special director in the IB, a move seen as strengthening the agency’s senior leadership against the backdrop of turbulent developments in the neighbourhood. Dixit was among those elevated at that time, the other three being Rithwik Rudra of the Himachal Pradesh cadre, Praveen Kumar of the West Bengal cadre, and Arvind Kumar of the Bihar cadre. The promotions were formalized on a temporary basis for a period of two years.
Dixit is a methodical and low-profile officer, who has handled consequential internal security responsibilities with minimal public visibility.
Who is Tapan Kumar Deka – the outgoing IB director?
The outgoing director, Tapan Kumar Deka, assumed charge as the 28th director of the Intelligence Bureau on July 1, 2022, with an initial two-year tenure that was expected to end on June 30, 2024. The government subsequently extended his service twice – first by one year until June 30, 2025, and then by a further year until June 30 this year.
The second extension, cleared on May 20, 2025, was granted under FR 56 (d) and Rule 16 (1A) of the All India Services (Death-cum-Retirement Benefits) Rules, 1958 – provisions that allow extensions in the public interest – making Deka the longest-serving IB chief since the role was capped at a two-year tenure in 2005.
During his years at the helm, Deka oversaw investigations into the 2008 Assam bombings and played a key role in the Pathankot air base attack and Pulwama attack investigations. He was also instrumental in the arrest of Yasin Bhatkal, the founder of the Indian Mujahideen, from Nepal.
Under his watch, the IB deepened its coordination with state police forces and central agencies, and the Bureau reportedly created a dedicated China desk to monitor developments along the Line of Actual Control – a recognition of the growing salience of that frontier to India's internal security calculations.
Founded in 1887 as the Central Special Branch, it is regarded as the oldest extant intelligence organization in the world. Until 1968, it handled both domestic and foreign intelligence, after which the Research and Analysis Wing was created for external intelligence, leaving the IB focused on internal security and counterintelligence. Today, the bureau functions under the Ministry of Home Affairs but occupies a position of unusual institutional weight: its director is a member of the Strategic Policy Group and the Joint Intelligence Committee of the National Security Council, with the authority to brief the prime minister directly.
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