Gandhinagar, June 5 (IANS) Gyanender Singh Malik, the newly appointed Director General and Inspector General of Police (DGP) of Gujarat, will lead the state’s police force, with a career spanning district policing, border security operations, intelligence assignments, international peacekeeping missions, and major administrative responsibilities.

The state government on Saturday appointed Malik, a 1993-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the Gujarat cadre, to the vacant post of Director General and Inspector General of Police, Gujarat State, with immediate effect.

The appointment was announced through a Home Department notification. Malik, who is presently serving as Ahmedabad Police Commissioner, hails from Faridabad district in Haryana.

He holds a Bachelor of Technology degree in Electrical Engineering from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, and a Bachelor of Laws degree from Gujarat University.

Before joining the IPS, he worked with ONGC at Bombay High and later served in the Indian Railways.

After completing his police training, he was posted as Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) in Bhuj and later served as Superintendent of Police (SP) in six districts, including Dangs, Porbandar, Surendranagar, Ahmedabad Rural, Bharuch, and Kutch.

Over the course of his career, he has also headed four major police ranges, including Border Range, Ahmedabad Range, Vadodara Range, and Surat Range.

His service record includes assignments as Aide-de-Camp (ADC) to the Governor of Gujarat, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) in Ahmedabad Crime Branch, Additional Commissioner of Police in Ahmedabad and Vadodara cities, and senior positions in CID (Crime), CID (Intelligence), the Anti-Corruption Bureau, the Prohibition and Excise Department, and the Home Department, where he also served as Secretary.

Between 2014 and 2018, Malik simultaneously held several senior positions, including Additional Director of the Anti-Corruption Bureau, Secretary in the Home Department, and Inspector General of Police for the Vadodara and Surat ranges.

During the same period, he was appointed chairman of the police constable recruitment board on three occasions.

According to official records, around 24,000 police constables were recruited under his supervision, with each recruitment cycle completed and results declared within 10 months.

Officials noted that nearly 20 pc of the personnel currently serving in the Gujarat Police were recruited through boards chaired by Malik.

His experience extends beyond Gujarat. During nearly 5 years on central deputation, he served with the Border Security Force (BSF) as Inspector General of the Gujarat Frontier for about 4 years.

During that tenure, he personally supervised a helicopter-borne operation in the Harami Nala area of Kutch, conducted with support from the Army and Air Force. The operation resulted in the seizure of 11 Pakistani boats and the capture of six Pakistani intruders.

Following his BSF tenure, he was posted to the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), where he served as Additional Director General (North) and later as Additional Director General of the Airport Sector in New Delhi.

Malik also served with the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Kosovo, then part of Yugoslavia, in 2002.

During the one-year assignment, he was associated with investigations into war crimes in the post-conflict region.

Since taking charge as Ahmedabad Police Commissioner on July 31, 2023, Malik has overseen several major initiatives.

During his tenure, authorities carried out what officials described as one of the largest encroachment-clearance drives in Gujarat around Chandola Lake.

The operation cleared nearly four lakh square metres of government land and removed more than 10,000 illegal houses without any reported untoward incident. Officials noted that the area had long been under scrutiny because of the presence of illegal Bangladeshi migrants.

Under Malik’s leadership, Ahmedabad Police also expanded its surveillance network through community participation.

More than 24,000 CCTV cameras were installed by citizens and organisations across the city. Feeds from over 3,000 strategically important cameras are being monitored by police stations and the Police Control Room.

The network supplements the nearly 4,000 CCTV cameras installed by the government and the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), which are also monitored by police authorities.

Officials highlighted that Ahmedabad was ranked India’s safest city in 2025 according to data released by Numbeo, an international organisation that compiles safety and crime-related indicators.

Officials attributed the ranking to a combination of policing measures, technology-driven surveillance, and community participation.

A keen sportsman, Malik has won medals in horse riding, individual tent pegging, pistol shooting, tennis, table tennis, and golf. He also plays badminton and chess.

He has been awarded the Police Medal for Meritorious Service and the President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service.

With experience spanning grassroots policing and crime investigation to border management, international peacekeeping,, and large-scale police administration, Malik will assume command of the Gujarat Police as the state’s highest-ranking police officer.

–IANS

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