Partha Sarathi Mahanta: Honoured for Special Operations, from Pakistan-Intelligence Espionage Arrests to the ULFA-I Spy Row

Guwahati’s Police Commissioner, Partha Sarathi Mahanta, has been chosen for the 2026 Kendriya Grihmantri Dakshata Padak, one of the Union Home Ministry’s honours for police work. He appears among the Assam awardees in the Special Operation category. Eighteen other Assam Police personnel share the honour with him, and the medal itself was introduced by the Home Ministry on 1 February 2024 to recognise special operations, investigation, intelligence work and forensic science. The recognition comes after a President’s medal in 2025 and a felicitation at the 75th Assam Police Day event in October 2026, according to a Bengali-language report.

Mahanta is a 2007-batch IPS officer of the Assam cadre who has risen steadily through the ranks. He was promoted from Kamrup Superintendent of Police to Deputy Inspector General, went on to serve as Joint Commissioner in Guwahati and as IGP, and has led the Guwahati Police Commissionerate since 31 December 2024. He also holds the post of Inspector General of the Assam Police Special Task Force.

His standing with the public was built largely on the fight against drugs in Guwahati. Under his watch, the city’s police seized narcotics worth about Rs 400 crore in 11 months and arrested 448 people, with Mahanta promising to go after both local peddlers and inter-state operators. A special squad he led stopped a truck loaded with 70,000 “World is Yours” tablets and broke an interstate supply network, with more dealers, vehicles and cash recovered within hours, earning public praise from Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. Another operation, led by him and ADCP Kalyan Pathak, seized a Manipur-registered ambulance that was being used to smuggle drugs. A separate haul of one lakh Yaba tablets led to the arrest of an Assam Rifles man and a Manipur cop.

His most recent success came in October 2026 in the field of counter-espionage. The STF arrested a 31-year-old Bihar man from a rented house in Guwahati for allegedly feeding information on security forces to a Pakistan Intelligence Operative. Mahanta developed the lead with Sonitpur SSP Barun Purkayastha, and a phone, SIM cards and incriminating documents were seized. The arrest grew out of a joint intelligence exercise between Military Intelligence and the Assam Police STF, officials said. The Bengali-language report on his medal also credits him with the arrest of an ISIS militant whose network was suspected of Pakistan-based handlers, though that account stands alone for now.

Earlier, as IGP, he tackled a militant-linked procurement plot. A man was arrested for allegedly helping a banned Manipur-based organisation obtain equipment that could have been used for sabotage. In the last few weeks, he has also been at the centre of the response to a deadly shooting at a Guwahati hotel. Five people died and a sixth survived, and the accused was arrested, with a hotel lease dispute emerging as a suspected trigger. A special investigation team is now handling the case.

Away from the uniform, Mahanta has a second identity as a writer. The Chief Minister released his book of poems in 2021, at an event where artistes including Zubeen Garg recited his verses. Assam University awarded him an honorary D.Litt in January 2026.

His career has not been free of controversy. In April 2022, the banned ULFA-I released a video of an alleged mole who claimed Mahanta had asked him to join the outfit and monitor its camps, with a promise of Rs 1 crore. Mahanta denied sending any spy and said he might have met the man during his Kamrup posting but could not recall. ULFA-I later announced that it had executed two cadres on suspicion of spying for Assam Police. In early 2024, a former ULFA-I member claimed that a mission had been indirectly promoted by senior police officers, including Mahanta, an allegation the state police and the Chief Minister rejected. Neither claim has been substantiated in public.