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Between his 10 years as a police officer and his foray into politics — he is with Babulal Marandi’s Jharkhand Vikas Morcha — Kumar worked as an executive with the Tatas and went on to become CEO of Max Neeman. He also has an MBBS degree from JIPMER,in what is now Puducherry.

It is the tag of supercop that has stuck. It is widely believed,in fact,that it was his tough reputation that helped him get the corporate jobs after he had quit the police,disgusted with alleged political pressure.

Today,after the elections and looking back on his police days,he lists his biggest achievements as “the love,respect and trust that the people of Jamshedpur had for me.” Moreover,he said,“you know well that during my tenure criminals and the mafia were vanquished.”

Kumar had become an IPS officer,Bihar cadre,in 1986,when Bihar was still undivided. In 1994,Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav posted him as SP of Jamshedpur. During a two-year stint as SP,Kumar supervised nearly two dozen encounters and ensured the arrest of three alleged dons,Hidayatullah Khan (now out on bail and a Congress leader),Naushad and Awdhesh Singh. This earned him two more tags,“encounter specialist” and “Lalu’s blue-eyed boy”,the latter now raked up by some of his former police colleagues.

Asked about reports that he was posted as Jamshedpur SP because then Tata Steel MD J J Irani had urged Lalu to post an honest and competent IPS officer,Kumar said this was true.

About the “encounter specialist” tag,he said,“We brought peace through a systemic change in policing. Lots of criminals were shot in shootouts but that is a very small part of the story.”

Being a policeman was a childhood dream. At school,he was a sergeant with the NCC. As a trainee police officer,he went on to win the President’s Police Medal for gallantry.

He explained why he gave it all up: “A series of events bugged me. I recall one incident connected with a raid on the residence of a minister. The raid was conducted. But I was directed to write against the officer whom I had deployed to conduct the raid or be ready to face the consequences. Instead of bowing to this pressure,I put in my papers.”

Politics would now give him a chance to work with the needy,he said. It has already made him the target of rivals,who say Maoists helped him garner votes. The police have come across two CDs that allegedly contain conversations between Kumar and men claiming to be Maoists.

In one of these,Kumar allegedly addresses a man as “Samarji” and tells him that with their support,no one could defeat him. “The CD was doctored,” Kumar said. “In the conversation the so- called Samarji,who turned out to be fake,said ‘The poor are with you’. I then said,‘No one can defeat me’.”

An IAS officer of Kumar’s batch said,“I don’t know if he has the mettle to prove himself in politics but he was instrumental in bringing the underworld to justice.”