Sinha was born on 14 January 1964 in the city of
Arrah, located in
Bhojpur district in the state of
Bihar. His father was a professor in
Dhanbad and the family used to travel between the two towns regularly. The family relocated to the city permanently after his father retired. Sinha graduated from
St. Stephen's College, Delhi. He joined the
Indian Police Service (IPS) in the 1988 batch and was assigned to the
Madhya Pradesh cadre. In 2000, he was reassigned to
Chhattisgarh, the new state was split off from Madhya Pradesh. Sinha served as the
Superintendent of Police of
Durg and also at the state capital
Raipur. He then chose to transfer to police intelligence, and was deputed to the
Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW). Sinha was promoted to the office of Secretary, R&AW on 1 July 2023. He was previously the chief of the R&AW operations wing for seven years. Sinha has significant experience in
Kashmir,
Northeast India and areas affected by the
Naxalite insurgency. Sinha was set to retire in January 2024 but received an extension. According to a report by
NDTV, Sinha has operated in Kashmir,
Ladakh and
Punjab, and also served as a consular general in
Hong Kong for four years. Sinha is also said to have served in
Bhutan,
China and
The Hague. He is considered an expert on
Pakistan,
Myanmar and the
Khalistan movement Sinha retired as Secretary, R&AW on 30 June 2025. His tenure saw the
2024 Bengaluru cafe bombing, and the emergence of
The Resistance Front (TRF) in Kashmir as an arm of the
Lashkar-e-Taiba. A report in
The Sunday Guardian claimed Sinha tackled terrorism in mainland India and also reduced the TRF threat. The report also noted how 30 terrorists were killed in Pakistan from 2023 to 2025, overlapping with Singh's tenure. Many terrorists disappeared from public life and lambasted the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI (
Inter-Services Intelligence) for not protecting them. The report also lauded Indian activities in
South Asia and elsewhere during Sinha's time in office. After retiring from R&AW, Sinha was appointed a Special Secretary in the
Cabinet Secretariat. During the
2025 India–Pakistan conflict, led by Sinha, R&AW and the
National Technical Research Organisation prepared a list of 21 militant bases in Pakistan. Out of these 25, nine high-priority bases were selected and bombed on 7 May. == References ==