Chennai: Asra Garg, inspector general of police for the North Zone, has been appointed as the inspector-general of police for the Intelligence wing. He succeeds Avinash Kumar, who had been posted to the intelligence wing by the Election Commission of India (ECI) ahead of the assembly polls. The ECI had previously removed then IG (Intelligence) K A Senthil Velan to facilitate Kumar's appointment.
Garg is a 2004-batch IPS officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre. He was part of the Special Investigation Team constituted by the Madras High Court on October 3, 2025, to probe the Karur stampede, which claimed 41 lives during a rally addressed by Chief Minister Vijay. The investigation was later transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
During his tenure as North Zone IG, Garg led efforts that resulted in the dismantling of an interstate synthetic drug cartel that operated through digital applications. The Tiruvallur police arrested over a dozen suspects in connection with the cartel, including several foreign nationals.
