Vinaytosh Mishra Given Additional Charge of Odisha DGP After Khurania's Retirement

Vinaytosh Mishra, Director General of the Crime Branch in Odisha, has been given additional charge of Director General of Police. The Chief Minister's Office said Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi approved the proposal, and Mishra holds the additional charge from August 16, the day incumbent police chief YB Khurania superannuated, until further orders.

An additional charge arrangement at the head of a state police force is a temporary measure. The Director General of Police commands the state's entire police establishment, controls postings below a certain rank, and is answerable to the state government for law and order. Odisha Police has a sanctioned strength of over 60,000 personnel across 30 districts, and the DGP's office also coordinates with central forces deployed in the state's Maoist-affected southern and western districts. The DGP also handles the force's recruitment and training establishments, the armed police battalions, and the intelligence wing, and represents the state in the conferences of Directors General held by the Centre. Odisha's coastline and its ports add a coastal security dimension handled jointly with the marine police and central agencies.

Mishra has been heading the Crime Branch, the state's specialised investigation agency, which handles cases transferred from district police, economic offences, cybercrime and organised crime. The Crime Branch also runs the state's cyber police stations and handles cases involving chit fund frauds, an area where Odisha has carried a long investigative backlog. Officers reaching Director General rank in a state have typically held district charges, range Inspector General postings and central deputation tenures. The Crime Branch also handles the state's economic offences wing cases, which in Odisha have included a long-running set of deposit collection schemes that drew money from small savers across the state. Several of these were transferred to the CBI on court orders, and the state agency retained others.

Khurania headed the Odisha Police until his superannuation on August 16. His tenure covered the change of government in the state in 2024 and the law and order arrangements that followed, along with anti-Maoist operations in the Kandhamal, Kalahandi and Malkangiri belt.

The arrangement is being made while the appointment of police chiefs is under examination by the Supreme Court. The court's directions in the Prakash Singh case require states to select a DGP from a panel prepared by the Union Public Service Commission of officers with a minimum residual tenure of two years, and to give the appointee a fixed two-year term. Several states have sought modification of these directions, and the court has been hearing the matter. Additional charge arrangements are commonly used while a state awaits the UPSC panel. The Prakash Singh directions, issued in 2006, also cover the separation of investigation from law and order, the establishment of police complaints authorities and fixed tenures for field officers. Compliance has been uneven across states, and the Supreme Court has continued to monitor it through applications filed in the original case.

Odisha's policing priorities include the final phase of anti-Maoist operations in the southern districts, where the Centre has set a national deadline of March 2026, cybercrime and financial fraud registrations that have risen steeply, and law and order during the temple festival calendar at Puri. The officer holding additional charge carries these responsibilities alongside the Crime Branch. The state has also been raising its cyber policing capacity, with cyber police stations opened in each district and a state-level cyber crime unit handling the larger cases. Financial fraud conducted through digital channels now forms a substantial share of registrations in the urban districts.

The additional charge takes effect from August 16 and continues until further orders. Mishra holds the rank of Director General in the Odisha cadre.