Bathinda-born IPS officer Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal has assumed charge as the Director General of Police (DGP) and Head of the Police Force in Tamil Nadu.A 1994-batch IPS officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre, Aggarwal was serving as Special Director General in the Border Security Force (BSF) in New Delhi before being appointed to the state’s top police post.Aggarwal studied at MSD Public School, Bathinda, before cracking the UPSC examination in 1994. His father late Prakash Chand Aggarwal was an eminent lawyer in the city. A graduate in law from Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU), Rohtak, Aggarwal is proficient in Tamil, English, Hindi and Punjabi.Advocate Rajan Garg, a year junior to Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal in the integrated LLB course and who is now president of the MSD Public School Management Committee, Bathinda, said, “We are still in touch with each other. Mahesh has two elder brothers. The eldest, Virinder Aggarwal, is a judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, while his brother Rajinder Aggarwal is posted as a District and Sessions Judge at Hoshiarpur. Their residence was near the old telephone exchange here.”With over three decades of policing experience, Aggarwal has held several key positions in Tamil Nadu, including Commissioner of Police in Chennai, Madurai and Tirunelveli. During the Covid-19 pandemic, he headed the Chennai police and launched various initiatives.He has also served with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Chandigarh. A recipient of the President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service and the Police Medal for Meritorious Service, Aggarwal is widely regarded as an officer known for modern, technology-driven policing.