Amit Lodha Height, Age, Wife, Family, Biography & More

Some Lesser Known Facts About Amit Lodha

• Amit Lodha is a 1988-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the Bihar cadre who is known for apprehending the Bihar-based gangster Ashok Mahto (known as the Gabbar Singh of Sheikhpura) and his aide Pintu Mahto in 2006.

• A few months after his birth, his family relocated to Jaipur, Rajasthan, where Amit’s father started working at Sawai Mansingh Hospital as a doctor.

• Growing up, Lodha desired to become a civil servant as his maternal grandfather was an IAS officer.

• While in class 12, he began preparing for the IIT entrance exam and cracked it on his first attempt.

• After joining IIT Delhi, Amit was ragged by his seniors for around 15 days. While studying there, he got an inferiority complex that overpowered him. During an interview, Amit revealed that his journey at IIT Delhi was terrible. He said,
  

  I failed at everything. I suffered from depression and suicidal thoughts. I thought I was the unluckiest person in the world. My grades were the worst, and my interpersonal relations poor. My friends liked me for the goodness of my heart. But even they stayed away from me because I was quiet and perceived to be strange. Never invited to parties or the first choice for sharing rooms. I could never fit in.”

  

  Amit Lodha during his college days

• Amit passed out from IIT, Delhi, with low grades and could not find any good job. So, he started preparing for the Civil Services exam. In 1998, he passed the Civil Services Examination and became an IPS officer of the Bihar cadre.

• Post his training, Amit was posted in Bihar as the Assistant Superintendent of Police. During that time, Bihar was struggling with rising crime rates – kidnapping, theft, and murders. People were fleeing the state in search of opportunities. Recalling that phase in an interview, Amit said,
  

  Even elites like doctors, engineers, and businessmen were hesitant to visit Bihar. They were scared because nobody knew when they or any member of their family would get kidnapped or worse still, shot at.”

• Amit helped solve a number of cases with great ease and his attitude towards the public made him popular in Bihar. Beholding the image of a public servant in an appropriate manner, he asked people in his area to directly call on his landline number in case of any issues.

• In May 2006, the Gabbar Singh of Sheikhpura, Ashok Mahto, along with his alliance Pintu Mahto, killed 15 people in Sheikhpura over two nights. Ashok had around 30 cases of murder and kidnapping on him. He was also involved in the infamous 2002 Nawada jailbreak. Talking about it in an interview, Amit said,
  

  There was a war-like atmosphere in Sheikhpura. They had killed a sitting MLA and MP and a block development officer.”

  Lodha, through his courage and smart thinking, managed to nab the criminals after a thrilling cat-and-mouse chase across multiple states. The battle lasted nearly three months. The achievement made Amit a national star. In an interview, while recalling the incident, he said,

  To nab Ashok Mahto, I had to think like a criminal. What was he thinking? What would his next move be? I read his cases and studied how he committed crimes. And on 13 August, we arrested him.”

• In 2008, Lodha successfully arrested nine Naxalites in Rampur.

• Subsequently, he was posted at various positions in the districts of Begusarai, Sheikhpura, Nalanda, Muzaffarpur and Gaya, which were known to be crime hotbeds.

• After serving Bihar for around 14 years, Amit Lodha went on a central deputation in 2012. He was appointed as the Inspector General of the Police of Rajasthan Frontier of BSF. He replaced Anil Paliwal, the previous IG. He served at the Rajasthan Frontier of BSF for around seven years. During that period, he also held an additional charge of the training centre.
  

  Amit Lodha in his office

• Amit has also launched several initiatives for the upliftment of society like Sambhav and Bharat Ke Veer. With his initiative Sambhav, Amit aimed to inspire community services and boost the potential of the youth by providing free education to students, who could not afford to go to school. He started another popular drive called Bharat Ke Veer along with the Indian actor Akshay Kumar with an aim to provide aid to martyrs’ families. Apparently, together Amit and Akshay managed to raise around Rs. 30 crores for the project.

• In 2018, he wrote the book ‘Bihar Diaries: The True Story Of How Bihar’s Most Dangerous Criminal Was Caught.’ The book was based on a chapter in Amit’s life where he manages to nab one of the most feared ganglords in Bihar, Ashok Mahto, notorious for extortion, kidnapping and the massacre of scores of people. Published by Penguin Random House India, the book was a national best-seller.
  

  Amit Lodha at his book launch

• In 2021, Amit released his second book titled ‘Life In The Uniform: Adventures of an IPS Officer in Bihar.’
  

  Amit Lodha at a book store signing his book Life In The Uniform- Adventures of an IPS Officer in Bihar

• In his spare time, Amit Lodha loves to play tennis and squash.

• One of the most popular IPS officers in Bihar, Amit is often addressed as ‘Super Cop’ for his distinguished services to the Bihar police.

• In his book Bihar Diaries, Amit has revealed an interesting story that how a girl named Beauty Kumari was behind him for marriage despite knowing that Amit was already married. He wrote,
  

  A girl used to call me continuously and used to say that I like you very much, that girl’s name was Beauty Kumari. That girl told me that she wanted to meet and one day she brought her father. She came to my office. When I saw that girl, she was completely opposite to her name. After coming to my office, the girl sent her father out, so I was a little shocked and scared to hear this. After that the girl immediately jumped on the table and grabbed my hand and said I like you very much and I want to get married, I will talk to Didi (Amit Lodha’s wife). After this, I immediately called my security and called that girl very lovingly, madam-madam and sent her out.”

• During an interview, Amit revealed that in childhood and teenage he was very shy and quiet in nature and none of his family members or friends ever imagined that he would don a Khakee uniform one day. In the same interview, he revealed that a few days after his birth, a fortune teller told his mother that Amit will make a big name in the world of crime. Amit’s mother took it seriously and spent several years worrying that Amit would grow up to be a crime lord.

• On 25 November 2022, a web series titled Khakee: The Bihar Chapter, based on a chapter in Amit Lodha’s life (documented in Amit’s book named The Bihar Diaries) was released on Netflix. The film was conceptualised and directed by Neeraj Pandey. While the Indian actor Karan Tacker played Amit’s character, Avinash Tiwary essayed the role of a gangster in the series. Apparently, the story was earlier supposed to be depicted in a film by Neeraj Pandey and the Indian actor Akshay Kumar was finalised for essaying the role of Amit Lodha. However, things didn’t work as planned.
  

  Karan Tacker as Amit Lodha in Netflix’s web series Khakee- The Bihar Chapter

• In an interview, when Amit Lodha was asked about his reviews on the web series Khakee: The Bihar Chapter, he said,
  

  In the series, I might be portrayed as the hero but you see the involvement of every single policeman was equally essential in nabbing the criminal and putting things to order, I have always believed in teamwork and that has worked for me in the entire part of my service.”