IPS officer Vivek Kumar Johri took charge as the Director General of the country’s largest border guarding force, BSF, here on Saturday.

Johri, a 1984-batch officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre, took charge from his batch-mate Rajni Kant Mishra at the BSF headquarters in CGO Complex at Lodhi Road.

Mishra, an Indian Police Service officer from the Uttar Pradesh cadre, retired after occupying the top post of the BSF for less than a year.Mishra took over as the BSF DG in October last year.

He was appointed as an Officer on Special Duty in the Union home ministry on July 29 so that he can take over as the BSF DG.

The new DG, Johri, will retire in September next year and is the 25th chief of the force that was raised in 1965.The new chief was accorded a guard of honour before he took the baton from Mishra, a BSF spokesperson said.

An engineering graduate from Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology , Bhopal, Johri has earlier served in the CBI apart from serving in his cadre state.