Director General of the Assam Rifles

The Director General of the Assam Rifles (DGAR) is the head of the Assam Rifles. The DGAR has their office in the Headquarters DGAR at Shillong. Appointed by the Government of India, the DGAR reports to the Minister of Home Affairs. The Director General is an Indian Army Officer of the rank of Lieutenant General and is assisted by three Inspector Generals, each holding the rank of Major General, and other senior officers heading various staff appointments. The Additional Director General of the Assam Rifles who is a Major General - ranked officer serves as the Second-in-command to the Director General.^[1] The current Director General, Lieutenant General Vikas Lakhera, AVSM, SM is the 22nd DGAR.^[2]

Director General of the Assam Rifles (DGAR)
Incumbent Lt. Gen. Vikas Lakhera, AVSM, SM since 1 August 2024
Formation	1947; 78 years ago (1947)
First holder	H. G. Bartly, CIE, IP
Website	Official Website

History

The first Director General post-Independence was Mr HG Bartly, CIE, IP who assumed the appointment on 17 September 1947. The first Indian Director General was Colonel Sidhiman Rai, MC appointed on 15 August 1948. The rank of officers holding the appointment of Director General Assam Rifles has been consistently upgraded from Colonel to Brigadier (One star General) to Major General (Two star General) to Lieutenant General (Three star General) now. Indian Army officers on deputation have been holding the appointment of Director General Assam Rifles until date.

List of directors general

S.No	Rank	Name	Appointment date	Left office	References
1	-	H. G. Bartly, CIE, IP	17 Sep 1947	14 Aug 1948	[3]
2	Colonel	Sidhiman Rai, MC	15 Aug 1948	10 Dec 1949	[4]
3	Colonel	R. N. D. Frier, MC	16 Dec 1949	29 Feb 1952
4	Brigadier	K. Bhagwati Singh, AVSM	1 Mar 1952	4 May 1954
5	Brigadier	K. S. Katoch, MC	5 May 1954	29 Aug 1955
6	Brigadier	Harbhajan Singh	7 Sep 1955	30 Nov 1957
7	Major General	A. S. Guraya	1 Feb 1958	14 Dec 1965
8	Major General	S. N. Bhatia	15 Dec 1965	15 Feb 1968
9	Major General	V. B. Tuli	20 Feb 1968	19 May 1972
10	Major General	M. G. Hazari, PVSM, AVSM	30 Mar 1973	29 Feb 1976
11	Major General	K. Chiman Singh, PVSM	1 Mar 1976	25 Jun 1979
12	Lieutenant General	Sushil Kumar, PVSM	1 Sep 1979	2 Dec 1981	[5]
13	Lieutenant General	J. K. Puri, PVSM, AVSM	2 Dec 1981	29 Nov 1983
14	Lieutenant General	P. E. Menon, PVSM	30 Nov 1983	31 May 1987
15	Lieutenant General	M. K. Lahiri, PVSM	1 Jun 1987	21 Dec 1989
16	Lieutenant General	R. V. Kulkarni, PVSM, UYSM, AVSM	22 Feb 1990	9 Mar 1992
17	Lieutenant General	V. P. Airy, MVC	18 Mar 1992	31 Mar 1993	[6]
18	Lieutenant General	Y. M. Bammi, ADC	15 Jul 1993	30 Apr 1995	[7]
19	Lieutenant General	T. P. S. Rawat, PVSM, VSM	19 May 1995	30 Apr 1998	[8]
20	Lieutenant General	Gurpreet Singh, PVSM	1 May 1998	18 Jan 2001
21	Lieutenant General	G. K. Duggal, PVSM, AVSM, VrC	19 Jan 2001	18 Jan 2003	[9]
22	Lieutenant General	H. S. Kanwar, PVSM, AVSM, VSM	1 Mar 2003	30 Apr 2004	[10]
23	Lieutenant General	Bhopinder Singh, PVSM, AVSM, VSM	1 May 2004	30 Jun 2006	[11]
24	Lieutenant General	Paramjit Singh, PVSM, AVSM, VSM	6 Jul 2006	31 May 2008	[12][13]
25	Lieutenant General	K. S. Yadava, PVSM, AVSM, SM, VSM	9 Jun 2008	30 Sep 2010	[14][15]
26	Lieutenant General	Rameshwar Roy, UVSM, AVSM, YSM	6 Dec 2010	22 Feb 2012	[16][17]
27	Lieutenant General	Ranbir Singh, PVSM, AVSM, SM	27 Aug 2012	31 Mar 2014	[18][19]
28	Lieutenant General	R. K. Rana, SM, VSM	26 May 2014	31 Aug 2015	[20]
29	Lieutenant General	H. J. S. Sachdev, PVSM, AVSM, SM, ADC	1 Sep 2015	30 Sep 2016	[21]
30	Lieutenant General	Shokin Chauhan, PVSM, AVSM, YSM, SM, VSM	12 Dec 2016	31 Mar 2018	[22]
31	Lieutenant General	Sukhdeep Sangwan, AVSM, SM**	4 May 2018	31 May 2021	[23]
32	Lieutenant General	Pradeep Chandran Nair, AVSM, YSM	1 June 2021	31 July 2024	[24]
33	Lieutenant General	Vikas Lakhera, AVSM, SM	1 August 2024	Incumbent	[25]

See also

• Assam Rifles
• Special Frontier Force