Vijay Kumar joined the
Indian Police Service on 10 November 1975. He served as
Assistant superintendent in
Pattukkottai,
Trichy and Sembiam. As
Superintendent of Police, he served in
Dharmapuri from 1982 to 1983 and Salem from 1983 to 1985. He assisted
Walter Devaram during this tenure. He served from 1985 to 1990 in the Elite
Special Protection Group (SPG) with former Prime Minister
Rajiv Gandhi. In 1990, he was posted as the SP of
Dindigul district followed by
Vellore district in 1991. In 1991 he along with
Sanjay Arora went on to form the Special Security Group (SSG) to provide security to Former Chief Minister
J. Jayalalithaa. In 1997 he was posted as the first
Inspector General of Police for the South Zone of Tamil Nadu after having handled the caste clashes in the southern districts. He served from 1998 to 2000 as the Inspector General,
Border Security Force (BSF) Srinagar during the peak of militancy. He also served as IG (Operations), BSF before being recalled to the state to head the operations to hunt the forest brigand Veerappan. In December 2001, he was appointed
Commissioner of Police for
Chennai city. The highlight of his career came was when he headed the task force operation,
Operation Cocoon in which
Veerappan was killed in October 2004. In 2008, Vijay Kumar was chosen to head the
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy in
Hyderabad. He served as the Director-general of
Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) from 2010 to 2012. In December 2012, the
Union government appointed him as Senior Security Adviser in
Ministry of Home Affairs in
Government of India. In June 2018, Vijay Kumar was appointed as adviser to Governor Vohra, along with Chhattisgarh cadre IAS officer
BVR Subrahmanyam. The names of advisers were cleared by the
Ministry of Home Affairs in
Government of India after the state was put under the Governor's rule. In December 2019, he was appointed as senior security adviser in the Ministry of Home Affairs. == Awards and recognitions ==