K Vijay Kumar is the new director general of the central Reserve Police Force. Kumar, handpicked by home minister P Chidambaram, is presently the director of the national police academy in Hyderabad.

He is an old SPG hand who had provided security to Rajiv Gandhi. However, it was the killing of forest brigand Veerappan that he is best remembered for.

He replaces Vikram Srivastava, who was embroiled in a proof of age controversy along with sibling Raman Srivastava, who heads the Border Security Force (BSF).

The appointement also comes in the wake of the Dantewada massacre, for which both the union home ministry and the E Rajamohan commission had blamed the CRPF for inept handling of the Maoist threat in the region.