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 Partition of India, independent from the British Empire. Along with the Indian Admini ...

(I.P.S.) officer. He was state police chief and director general of police of the

Kerala State 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 Temperament, ...

, and is the former director of Vigilance in the state of Kerala, after

T. P. Senkumar T P Senkumar (born 10 June 1957) is an Indian lawyer and retired police officer in the Indian Police Service. He served as the State Police Chief of Kerala. He was appointed the State Police Chief on 31 May 2015, replacing K. S. Balasubramania ...

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 is the supreme judiciary of India, judicial authority and the supreme court, highest court of the Republic of India. It is the final Appellate court, court of appeal for all civil and criminal cases in India. It also ...

. Behera is from

Odisha Odisha (), formerly Orissa (List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2011), is a States and union territories of India, state located in East India, Eastern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by ar ...

. He was one of the founding members of the

National Investigation Agency The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is the principal counter-terrorism law enforcement agency in India. Established under the National Investigation Agency Act, 2008, it is tasked with investigating and combating offenses related to terroris ...

(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, Odisha, and is the oldest university in the state, and the 17th-oldest university in India. The university was established in 1943 and was operating from Ravenshaw College ...

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 States and union territories of India, 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 ...

and also served as Commissioner of Police in

Kochi Kochi ( , ), List of renamed Indian cities and states#Kerala, formerly known as Cochin ( ), is a major port city along the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea. It is part of the Ernakulam district, district of Ernakulam in the ...

and DCP in

Thiruvananthapuram Thiruvananthapuram ( ), also known as Trivandrum, is the Capital city, capital city of the Indian state of Kerala. As of 2011, the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation had a population of 957,730 over an area of 214.86 sq. km, making it the ...

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

Central Bureau of Investigation The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is the domestic crime 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 gover ...

. 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 the Hindu nationalist group, Bajra ...

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 Chr ...

, Mumbai serial blast case, etc. In 2009, Behera became one of the founding members of the NIA. At the NIA, he headed the terror financing and fake currency-specialized cell of the NIA. Prior to being appointed as the director general of the Kerala Police, he served as director of the

Kerala Fire and Rescue Services The Kerala Fire and Rescue Services, often referred to as ''Kerala Fire Force'', is the service department of the Government of Kerala whose function is to fight fires and provide relief measures in times of calamities and disasters in Kerala. ...

. He was a part of the team that traveled to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

to question

David Headley David Coleman Headley (born Dawood Sayed Gilani; June 30, 1960) is a Pakistani-American Islamic terrorist and the mastermind behind the 2008 Mumbai islamic terrorist attacks. He played a key role in orchestrating the attacks, working with the ...

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