Aparna Rajat Kaushik IPS | Wiki Bio, Age, UPSC Rank, Posting

IPS Officer, 2015 Batch · Uttar Pradesh Cadre · Superintendent of Police

Born: 7 March 1991 · From: Rampur, UP · UPSC CSE 2014 (1st Attempt) · Service: IPS

APARNA RAJAT KAUSHIK IPS (2015 Batch) · Uttar Pradesh Cadre
📋 Personal Information
Full Name	Aparna Rajat Kaushik
Date of Birth	7 March 1991
Age (as of 2026)	35 years
Birthplace	Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, India
Hometown	Rampur, Uttar Pradesh
Nationality	Indian
Religion	Hindu
Marital Status	Married (since 2018)
🎓 Education
High School	Completed in Rampur; State Topper in 2006 (Class 10 UP Board)
Higher Secondary	Completed schooling in Jaipur, Rajasthan
Graduation	B.Tech – National Institute of Technology (NIT), Prayagraj (Allahabad)
Branch	Biotechnology Engineering
Graduation Year	2012
Institute Rank	NIT Prayagraj – a premier National Importance institution
📝 UPSC Civil Services Examination
Exam Year	UPSC CSE 2014
Batch Allotted	IPS 2015 Batch
Attempt	1st Attempt (cleared in the very first try)
Service Allocated	Indian Police Service (IPS)
Cadre	Uttar Pradesh
Reserve Roll No.	IPS (RR–2012) – as noted in official records
Training	Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy (SVPNPA), Hyderabad
🏛️ Career & Postings (Chronological)
Probationary Period	Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel NPA, Hyderabad (2015-2016)
Early District Posting	Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) – UP (District posting, early years)
Mirzapur	*Superintendent of Police (SP), Mirzapur district, UP (recent posting)*
Amethi	Superintendent of Police (SP), Amethi district, UP (as of 2026)
Policing Style	Zero-tolerance on crime; humane, sensitive public engagement; women’s safety focus
💼 Pre-UPSC Professional Career
Job Profile	Business Analyst
Employer	Corporate firm, Gurugram (Gurgaon), Haryana
Annual CTC	₹18 Lakh per annum
Year of Joining	2012 (after NIT Prayagraj placement)
Reason for Leaving	Chose to pursue civil services; left a high-paying career to serve in uniform
Decision Year	Resigned to prepare full-time for UPSC (c. 2013–2014)
👨‍👩‍👧 Family
Father	Deceased (passed away before Aparna’s birth)
Mother	Smt. Preeti Gautam – raised Aparna as a single parent
Upbringing	Single-parent household; mother credited for instilling resilience and determination
Spouse	Married in 2018 (husband’s identity not publicly disclosed)
Wedding	Simple ceremony following Uttarakhand customs and traditions; savings donated to women’s SHGs
🌐 Public Profile & Social Media
Twitter / X	@aparnarkaushik
Instagram	Active (through official police accounts)
Viral Video (2026)	Official Mirzapur Police Instagram reel – 4M+ views; led to cyber-harassment controversy
⭐ Notable Facts & Distinctions
Academic Excellence	State Topper, UP Board Class 10 (2006)
First Attempt Success	Cleared UPSC CSE in her very first attempt – a rare distinction
Corporate Sacrifice	Left ₹18 LPA job to serve in IPS – widely cited as an inspiring decision
Wedding Philosophy	Donated wedding savings to women’s self-help groups; advocates against unnecessary expenditure
Women’s Safety	Known for empathetic, women-sensitive policing approach across postings
Cyber Harassment 2026	Faced online body-shaming after viral video; triggered national debate on women officers’ dignity
Known Policing Style	Firm zero-tolerance stance on crime paired with a calm, humane leadership style

Overview

Aparna Rajat Kaushik is a 2015-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer allocated to the Uttar Pradesh cadre. Born on 7 March 1991 in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, she is one of the most widely discussed women IPS officers in the country – both for her inspiring personal journey from a single-parent upbringing to clearing one of the world’s hardest examinations on her first attempt, and for her disciplined, humane approach to law enforcement across multiple postings in Uttar Pradesh. As of 2026, she serves as Superintendent of Police, Amethi, and has previously held the same post in Kasganj, Auraiya, and Mirzapur, besides serving as Deputy Commissioner of Police in the Lucknow Police Commissionerate.

Early Life

Aparna was born into a family touched by tragedy – her father passed away before she was born, leaving her mother, Smt. Preeti Gautam, to raise her entirely on her own. In interviews and public statements, Aparna has consistently credited her mother as the single greatest influence on her character, citing Preeti Gautam’s resilience, discipline, and sacrifices as the foundation on which she built her academic and professional achievements. Growing up without a father figure in a middle-income household in Rampur, a city in western Uttar Pradesh, Aparna developed an early sense of self-reliance and purposefulness that would define her journey.

Education

School – Rampur and Jaipur

Aparna completed her Class 10 board examination under the Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad (UP Board) in 2006, securing marks high enough to top the state – an exceptional academic achievement that brought her recognition early in life. For her higher secondary education, she moved to Jaipur, Rajasthan, completing her Class 11 and Class 12 schooling there before returning to north India for her engineering education.

B.Tech – NIT Prayagraj

Aparna pursued her undergraduate degree at the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Prayagraj – formerly known as Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology (MNNIT), Allahabad. NIT Prayagraj is one of India’s thirty-one National Institutes of Technology, established under the National Institutes of Technology Act and holding the status of an Institute of National Importance. She studied Biotechnology Engineering, graduating in 2012. The institute’s rigorous academic environment and strong placement record gave her both a technical foundation and immediate employability in the private sector.

Private Sector Career

Following her 2012 graduation from NIT Prayagraj, Aparna was placed through campus recruitment into a corporate role as a Business Analyst in Gurugram (Gurgaon), Haryana – then one of India’s fastest-growing corporate hubs. She drew an annual salary package of ₹18 lakh, a highly competitive figure for a fresh engineering graduate. By most conventional benchmarks of success, she had arrived: an elite engineering degree, a well-paying job in a metropolitan city, and a career trajectory that could reasonably be expected to continue upward.

However, Aparna found the corporate path incompatible with her deeper aspiration – to serve the country in uniform. Around 2013 to 2014, she made the decision to leave her private sector career and prepare full-time for the UPSC Civil Services Examination. The choice to walk away from ₹18 lakh per annum for the uncertainty of civil services preparation has been widely cited in media profiles and civil services communities as one of the most consequential and courageous career decisions of her life.

UPSC Civil Services Examination (CSE 2014)

Attempt and Result

Aparna Rajat Kaushik appeared for the UPSC Civil Services Examination 2014 – her very first attempt at the examination – and cleared all three stages: the Preliminary Examination, the Mains Examination, and the Personality Test (interview). She was allocated the Indian Police Service (IPS), placing in the 2015 batch with cadre allotment to Uttar Pradesh. Clearing the UPSC examination on the first attempt is itself a rare distinction; doing so after leaving a high-paying corporate career makes her trajectory particularly remarkable. Her Reserve Roll number in official IPS records is noted as RR-2012, reflecting her entry into the service.

Training

Following her selection, Aparna underwent foundational training at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy (SVPNPA) in Hyderabad – the apex training institute for IPS officers in India. The academy’s two-year programme covers law, policing, physical fitness, arms training, criminology, forensic science, and administrative skills. On completion of academy training, she was posted to the Uttar Pradesh cadre for district-level field training before assuming independent charge.

Career in the Indian Police Service

Early District Assignments

After completing her training at SVPNPA and her field attachment in Uttar Pradesh, Aparna began her district-level postings as an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) – the entry-level operational rank for direct IPS recruits. Her early years in the UP cadre gave her ground-level exposure to the diverse law-and-order challenges of one of India’s largest and most complex states, where effective policing requires simultaneous management of agrarian disputes, communal sensitivities, organised crime, and everyday public grievance.

SP, Auraiya

Aparna served as Superintendent of Police in Auraiya district, a role that involved comprehensive charge of law enforcement, crime prevention, traffic management, and administrative coordination with the civil district administration. Auraiya, situated in south-western UP, presents policing challenges common to agrarian hinterland districts including highway crime, cattle-related offences, and periodic inter-community tensions. Her tenure here established her reputation for methodical, evidence-led policing.

SP, Kasganj

One of her more prominent district postings was as Superintendent of Police of Kasganj – a sensitive district in western Uttar Pradesh that gained national attention following communal violence in 2018. Policing a district with such a recent history of unrest requires exceptional judgment, community outreach skills, and firm but fair enforcement. Aparna’s tenure in Kasganj was noted for her consistent engagement with communities on both sides of the social divide and her emphasis on law enforcement that is impartial and professionally accountable.

DCP, Lucknow Police Commissionerate

Aparna served as Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) in the Lucknow Police Commissionerate – a significantly different policing context from rural district postings. Metropolitan commissionerate policing involves managing high population density, complex traffic networks, VIP security, cybercrime, economic offences, and policing in areas with high political visibility. Her posting in Lucknow placed her within the state capital’s law enforcement hierarchy and brought her into a more institutionally complex operational environment.

SP, Mirzapur

Her posting as Superintendent of Police, Mirzapur brought Aparna into renewed public focus in March 2026, when an official police video shared by Mirzapur Police on Instagram went viral – accumulating over four million views – and sparked a national controversy over online harassment of women police officers (discussed separately below). In Mirzapur, she has been known for a zero-tolerance stance on crime, particularly organised criminal networks, and has been credited with several significant arrests during her tenure.

SP, Amethi (Current)

As of 2026, Aparna Rajat Kaushik serves as Superintendent of Police, Amethi, a politically prominent district in Uttar Pradesh that has historically been a Congress party stronghold and figures in national political discourse. Policing Amethi requires an officer capable of navigating politically sensitive terrain with professional neutrality – a quality that her track record across postings suggests she possesses in considerable measure.

Personal Life

Marriage and Wedding Philosophy

Aparna married in 2018 in a ceremony conducted according to Uttarakhand’s cultural traditions and customs. Rather than an elaborate wedding – common in both official and social circles – she chose a simple, locally arranged ceremony. In a widely circulated statement, she said: the money saved from keeping the wedding simple was donated to women’s self-help groups to support people in need, and she wanted to send the message that there is no need to spend unnecessarily on weddings. Her decision to redirect wedding savings toward women’s empowerment groups was widely appreciated and highlighted her grounded, values-driven personality.

Family and Inspiration

Aparna speaks publicly and affectionately about her mother, Smt. Preeti Gautam, as her primary role model and source of strength. Raised without a father in a single-parent household, Aparna attributes her resilience, work ethic, and sense of purpose directly to her mother’s example. This dimension of her personal story – particularly significant given her commitment to women’s safety as a policing priority – gives her public voice an authenticity that resonates widely with women across India.

The 2026 Viral Video Controversy

In March 2026, the Mirzapur Police shared an official Instagram reel in which Aparna Kaushik addressed the arrest of a wanted cattle smuggler carrying a ₹25,000 bounty. The video crossed four million views rapidly, but the comment section quickly became the site of offensive, sexist, and body-shaming remarks directed at the officer’s physical appearance rather than the substance of the police action. The Mirzapur Police department disabled the comment section to contain the abuse.

The incident ignited a widespread national debate about online harassment of women in positions of authority, the specific vulnerability of uniformed women officers to public sexism, and the limitations of India’s existing cyber-harassment laws in providing meaningful protection and accountability. Civil society organisations, fellow IPS officers, media commentators, and political figures condemned the trolling, while gender rights advocates used the incident to draw attention to the normalised sexualisation and appearance-policing of professional women in India’s digital public sphere.

The controversy, while deeply unpleasant in its particulars, thrust Aparna Rajat Kaushik into a wider national conversation about the treatment of women in uniform – a discussion she has engaged in thoughtfully and with characteristic calm.

Public Philosophy and Policing Approach

Across multiple postings and public statements, Aparna Rajat Kaushik has been consistently described – by colleagues, subordinates, and the public – as an officer who combines firmness with empathy. Her policing philosophy is defined by two complementary commitments: zero-tolerance for crime and criminal networks on one hand, and sensitivity to the needs, dignity, and safety of the public – particularly women – on the other. She has spoken publicly about the importance of a police force that the public trusts, and has engaged with community policing initiatives alongside conventional law enforcement work.

Her choice to leave a highly lucrative private sector career for public service in uniform reflects a value system that goes beyond career advancement – a sense of mission that her supporters argue is visible in her conduct across every posting she has held.