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Inspector Avinash Mishra Biography: Age, Career, Family and More

F4U Editorial Desk • Updated September 29, 2026 • 6 min read

Quick Info

AgeNot known

BirthplaceHamirpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

ProfessionRetired Civil Servant

NationalityIndian

Marital statusMarried

FamilyChildren - Son: Varun Mishra (engineer, founder of Finetic Media); Daughter: Smarika Mishra (doctor)

Inspector Avinash Mishra Biography

Avinash Mishra is a retired Uttar Pradesh Police officer from the 1982 batch who served as an encounter specialist and later in the Anti-Terrorist Squad. A

Early life and background

Avinash Mishra was born in Hamirpur, Uttar Pradesh, and later made Lucknow his hometown. He holds a master's degree in physical education, a qualification he pursued because of a continuing interest in sports. His father was a freedom fighter. Mishra follows Hinduism and is known to be a devotee of Lord Shiva.

Career

Mishra joined the Provincial Civil Services after clearing the UPPSC exams and reported to the U.P. Police Academy in Moradabad in 1982. He completed his training in 1985 and was commissioned as an Assistant Sub Inspector. His first posting was in Meerut, where he gained early recognition by taking part in encounters with dangerous criminals during his initial year on the job.

Over the course of a long policing career, Mishra became known as an encounter specialist. He was part of the Uttar Pradesh Police efforts to form and lead Special Task Force (STF) units. In 1998 he was transferred from Mhow to Lucknow and helped set up the STF that focused on tracking high-profile criminals such as Prakash Shukla.

The STF under Mishra pursued leads across state and national borders. At one stage the team followed intelligence to Nepal in an attempt to apprehend Shukla. The unit also pursued Shukla in Bihar and later located him in Indirapuram, Ghaziabad, where Mishra and his team encountered him in September 1998.

Mishra and the STF were involved in several notable operations in 1998, including an encounter in Delhi that involved Munna Bajrangi. That operation drew attention when the initial account of events—announcing the suspect dead—was later contradicted by mortuary staff who reported he had survived.

In 2002 Mishra encountered Sattu Pandey and an associate in Lucknow; Pandey was reported to have links to the Mumbai-based criminal Chhota Rajan and faced charges including murder and daylight robbery. Across his career he led operations that resulted in the neutralization or capture of a number of high-profile criminals, including Sachin Pahadi, Awadhesh Shukla, Ashok Singh, Mahendra Fauji, Nirbhay Gurjar, and Hasan Pudia.

From 2009 until 2018 Mishra served with the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS). He retired from active service in 2019, leaving the force with the rank of deputy superintendent of police. Among his honors is the President's Police Medal.

Public profile

Mishra's policing career and his reputation as an encounter specialist brought him public attention. He has been referred to by some colleagues as a mentor figure, and Mumbai police personnel used the informal title "Guruji" in recognition of his experience.

His family includes a son, Varun Mishra, who trained as an engineer and later founded a production company, and a daughter, Smarika Mishra, who is a doctor. Mishra is married and stands about 173 cm (5'8") tall. He has said that despite a B.Tech degree his son chose to create a production house to tell Mishra's story.

Mishra has known connections in the film industry: he is friends with director Neeraj Pathak and counts actor Randeep Hooda among the performers he admires. He has been photographed with Hooda, who later portrayed Mishra in a dramatized web series. Mishra has also acknowledged that he consumes alcohol occasionally.

Latest updates

In May 2023 a web series titled Inspector Avinash was released, based on Mishra's life as a police officer. In that dramatization Randeep Hooda played the role of the titular inspector. Around the same period, Mishra publicly stated that the Government of Uttar Pradesh withdrew his official police security without prior notice.

Quick note

Mishra served in law enforcement from his commissioning in 1985 until his retirement in 2019 and was a member of the 1982 civil service batch. His career included work in the STF and the ATS, and he was awarded the President's Police Medal.
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Recent Work

Inspector Avinash (Web Series)

A 2023 web series based on Avinash Mishra's life, in which actor Randeep Hooda portrayed Mishra.

2023
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Career Highlights

  1. 1982 batch Uttar Pradesh Police officer; trained at the U.P. Police Academy, Moradabad
  2. Commissioned as Assistant Sub Inspector in 1985 and retired as Deputy Superintendent of Police in 2019
  3. Helped set up and led Special Task Force operations targeting high-profile criminals such as Prakash Shukla
  4. Served with the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad from 2009 to 2018
  5. Recipient of the President's Police Medal
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Frequently Asked Questions

What is Inspector Avinash Mishra known for?

Retired Civil Servant

What is Inspector Avinash Mishra’s marital status?

Married