Inspector Avinash Mishra

Some Lesser Known Facts About Inspector Avinash Mishra

• Avinash Mishra is a retired 1982 batch police officer of the Uttar Pradesh Police, who is known to have conducted encounters of more than 150 dreaded criminals. He came to the limelight in May 2023 after the release of a web series titled Inspector Avinash, which is based on Mishra’s life as a cop.

• According to Avinash, he pursued his master’s in P.Ed to further his interests in the field of sports.

• Despite his father’s disapproval, Avinash filled out the forms for the Provincial Civil Services (PCS) exams conducted by the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC) and cleared them.

• In 1982, Mishra reported at the U. P. Police Academy in Moradabad. He completed his training at the academy in 1985 and got commissioned as an Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI).

• Mishra’s first posting was at Meerut, where he earned fame by encountering three dangerous gangsters in the first year of his posting.

• In 1998, Mishra was sent from Mhow to Lucknow, where he and a few other police officers established the Special Task Force (STF) to bring the dreaded criminal Prakash Shukla down.

• Later, he led the STF to Nepal after receiving actionable intelligence about the presence of Shukla there. However, Shukla managed to evade capture by the hands of the STF and fled to Bihar. While giving an interview, Mishra said,
  

  We almost had him in Nepal, where I had gone with my team after a tip-off. But the Nepalese police intervened in the matter as a result of which, Shukla managed to run away. We also had him in Bihar, but we were unable to get him as the relations back then between the governments of UP and Bihar was unstable.”

• He led the STF to Delhi, where they encountered Munna Bajrangi, a dreaded gangster, on 11 September 1998. According to the STF, Munna was killed in action after getting shot multiple times; however, the STF’s narrative was later debunked by the staff of the mortuary, where he was brought for a post-mortem, after they revealed that Munna had survived the encounter and was not dead. While giving an interview, Mishra said,
  

  It was very embarrassing. We had already announced in the media that he was dead and now he was suddenly declared alive. This went on to prove Jaakho Raake Saaiyan, Maar Sake Na Koi.”

• Avinash Mishra encountered Prakash Shukla on 22 September 1998 at Indirapuram, Ghaziabad, where he was reportedly visiting his girlfriend. According to Mishra, the STF triangulated Shukla’s location with the help of his cell phone.

  

• In 2002, Mishra encountered Sattu Pandey and his aide Guddu in Lucknow. The duo were reported to be working for the Mumbai-based dreaded gangster Chhota Rajan, moreover, Pandey had a warrant against him for the killing of Vivek Srivastava, a UP-based businessman, and the daylight armed robbery of a garment store in Aminabad.

• He later led the STF in encountering many dreaded criminals including Sachin Pahadi, Awadhesh Shukla, Ashok Singh, Mahendra Fauji, Nirbhay Gurjar, and Hasan Pudia.

• From 2009 to 2018, Mishra served at the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) of the UP Police.

• Mishra retired from active service as a deputy superintendent of police in 2019.

  

• While giving an interview, Mishra said that his son, despite holding a B.Tech degree, decided to establish a production house to narrate Mishra’s story to the people.

• Owing to his vast experience as an encounter specialist in the UP Police, Mishra was called Guruji by Mumbai Police cops.

• He is a fan of the actor Randeep Hooda.

  

• Director Neeraj Pathak and Avinash Mishra have been friends for a long time.

• He consumes liquor occasionally.

  

• During a media interaction, Avinash Mishra claimed that the Government of Uttar Pradesh took away his security provided by the UP Police without notice.

• On Avinash Mishra’s life as a cop, a web series titled Inspector Avinash was released in May 2023. In the series, Randeep Hooda portrayed the role of Avinash.