New Delhi: He has helped combat Islamic terror outfits and Left Wing extremists. He has served against militancy in Nagaland. But then, he knows what pill to prescribe where. After all he is a doctor.
Mahesh Dixit, who will take over as director of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) on July 1 holds a postgraduate degree in medicine from Pune, like his wife Rajashree. He will probably be the first doctor to take over as the country’s IB chief.
Dixit will succeed Tapan Deka, who retires after four years of illustrious service. It was Deka’s total reluctance to take a third extension that paved the way for Dixit.
He was ranked 35th in the UPSC civil services merit list but chose not to opt for either the much sought after Indian Foreign Service or Indian Administrative Service.
Dixit decided to join the Indian Police Service (IPS) in the 1993 ba
tch from the Andhra Pradesh cadre and was then allotted the Telangana cadre after the state was divided.
As an SP, he fought against Maoists and then joined the State Intelligence Bureau (SIB), only to handle rising Islamic terrorism in Hyderabad. It was due to efforts of the state IB and the police that Telangana had perhaps the best counter-terrorism unit in India with Hyderabad emerging the hub of Indian Mujahideen and pan-Islamic terrorist groups including HUJI.
Dixit, in his 33 years of service, mostly served in the field by heading SIBs in Kohima and Patna apart from doing a foreign stint in Moscow. However, the new director’s forte is counter-terrorism and he has served for nearly a decade handling Jammu and Kashmir in Srinagar and the IB Headquarters in all capacities, as reported by Hindustan Times.
He is currently heading the counter-terrorism (CT) desk as special director and has been responsible for snuffing out Pakistan sponsored terrorism in Kashmir.
Along with now chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, Dixit worked for the abrogation of article 370 and 35A in Jammu and Kashmir with Dixit also keeping a close watch on the 1,597 km Line of Actual Control in Ladakh.
Dixit played a significant role in neutralizing the Pakistani perpetrators of the Pahalgam massacre as well as keeping the political temperatures in check in the Valley, as head of IB’s Kashmir wing.
Dixit’s batch mates in IFS and IAS say that he had decided to go into IB from day one.