A few police officers in Punjab have had a career as varied as Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh’s.For years, he was the “supercop” whom the state government and even the judiciary turned to when a case was too sensitive or high-profile for others to handle. He then shed his uniform and entered politics as an outsider promising to clean up the system and break the alleged nexus between politicians, police officers and gangsters.Now, after a bruising stint with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), he is embarking on his third act with the BJP.As a police officer, Kunwar was known as much for his negotiating skills as for his investigative work. He would sit down with protesters and hear them out rather than resort to a lathi-charge at the first opportunity. As a politician, he has retained his bluntness, taking on even fellow AAP leaders and, more recently, Raghav Chadha, now a BJP MP, on various issues.A 1998-batch IPS officer, Kunwar began his career in December 1999 as ASP, Amritsar. The city would go on to shape his professional reputation and, years later, become his political constituency. He subsequently served as SP (City), SSP, DIG of the Ludhiana and Jalandhar ranges, Police Commissioner of Jalandhar and Ludhiana, DIG, Border Range, and IG, Special Task Force. As SSP, Amritsar, he later claimed credit for the “Amritsar Model” of community policing.His first major case came early in his career. In 2002, while serving as SP (City), Amritsar, he exposed an organ trade racket. On September 21 that year, his team arrested 12 donors and two middlemen. The investigation spread to Jalandhar and Ludhiana and developed into one of Punjab’s biggest scandals.The state later set up the Organised Crime Control Unit (OCCU) in January 2018 to tackle gangsters. When Kunwar headed it as IGP, the unit became one of the force’s key instruments against organised crime.A gold heist case in Ludhiana illustrated its methods. Acting on a tip-off, an OCCU team cornered the main accused in a market and foiled his attempt to open fire. The recovery included around Rs 31 lakh in cash, a pistol and live cartridges. The DGP announced rewards for the team.The unit also tracked proclaimed offenders across districts. It arrested a Ludhiana gangster near Chandigarh after first apprehending his accomplice and busted a gang that used wireless handsets to evade phone interception. Kunwar’s unit was also entrusted with overseeing the prosecution of serious cases against gangsters.On January 2, 2016, terrorists attacked the Pathankot Air Force Station. Kunwar, then DIG of the region, became the police face of the crisis. While the NSG and the Army led the combing operation at the sprawling airbase, the state police’s operations in the district were coordinated through his office. He had also supervised other anti-terror operations in the border belt.However, his most politically explosive assignment came when he was asked to investigate the alleged nexus between politicians and gangsters. In November 2019, the Amarinder Singh government tasked the police with examining these links. The inquiry, titled “Alleged Nexus Between Politicians and Gangsters”, was led by Kunwar, along with a DIG and an AIG. Its findings became public in February 2020.But it was his role in the investigation into the 2015 sacrilege incidents and the subsequent police firing at Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura that made him a household name.In November 2018, he issued summons to former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal and actor Akshay Kumar under Section 160 of the CrPC. Akshay Kumar subsequently joined the investigation. In February 2019, the SIT arrested IGP Paramraj Singh Umranangal, whom Kunwar publicly accused of misleading investigators. There was also a tense episode when he visited the Badal residence in Chandigarh to question the former Chief Minister.The Akalis hit back, filing complaints against him with the Punjab and Haryana High Court and the Election Commission of India. In April 2019, the Election Commission transferred him out of the OCCU following a complaint alleging violation of the Model Code of Conduct. However, then Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh called the allegations misplaced and brought him back as IGP, OCCU, within a month.On April 9, 2021, the Punjab and Haryana High Court quashed the SIT probe, questioned its methods and ordered the constitution of a fresh team without Kunwar. Within days, he submitted his resignation. Amarinder refused to accept it, describing him as a skilled, capable and courageous officer. Kunwar, however, did not return to the force.In June 2021, he joined the AAP in the presence of party supremo Arvind Kejriwal. In the 2022 Assembly elections, he won the Amritsar North seat with 58,133 votes, securing around 47 per cent of the vote and defeating his Akali rival by a comfortable margin.His transition from the police force to politics, however, did not mean he would toe the party line. He questioned his own government over the delay in delivering justice in the sacrilege cases and the appointment of officers associated with the earlier SIT to key positions.He resigned as chairman of the Assembly’s House Committee on Government Assurances and alleged in the House that gangster Lawrence Bishnoi was receiving VVIP treatment in custody. He also took on Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann over the Kotkapura and Bargari investigations. At another point, he criticised his own party for inducting people with alleged criminal links, describing the trend as the “SAD-isation” of the AAP.On June 29, 2025, the AAP suspended him for five years over alleged anti-party activities. The immediate trigger was his questioning of the Vigilance Bureau’s handling of the arrest of senior SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia.The development was particularly striking because Kunwar had been among the most vocal critics of the Badals, especially Majithia. He clarified that he was not defending the SAD leader but questioning the manner in which the government had handled the case. He also maintained that the party had no authority to suspend him.Several Opposition leaders described him as a truth-teller. Congress leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira also visited him, though both maintained that the meeting was personal.Now, Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh has begun another political innings, this time with the BJP. The move marks a new turn in the journey of an officer who once built his reputation by taking on powerful political figures and later entered politics promising to challenge the very system he had served.The BJP, too, has a centralised leadership structure, with key decisions resting with a handful of senior leaders. Whether Kunwar, known for his independent and outspoken approach, will find space for that style in his new party remains to be seen.For a man who has moved from the police force to the political arena and challenged his own government along the way, this is perhaps his most consequential transition yet.