Gurbir Grewal officially named prosecutor of Bergan County

SAN FRANCISCO (Diya TV) — Gurbir S. Grewal was officially named the prosecutor Bergan County in New Jersey Monday following a unanimous confirmation in the state Senate. He will serve a five-year term.

The feat makes Grewal the first South Asian in New Jersey to serve as a county’s top law enforcement officer, a position that gives him considerable power to lead the county’s most complex criminal investigations, oversee municipal police departments and coordinate regional task forces.

The 43-year-old father of three has been serving in the capacity since Gov. Chris Christie first tapped him for the role in January. Prior to his current position, Grewal was chief of the Economic Crimes Unit in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Newark. He has also worked in private practice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn.

A Democrat, he assumed the role from a fellow Democrat, John L. Molinelli, who was facing increasing criticism toward the end of his 14-year tenure. Christie had previously nominated Grewal for the same permanent status once prior, in September 2013, but the state Senate failed to ever schedule a hearing for the nomination.

In an interview last week, Grewal said that combating the region’s heroin epidemic and strengthening the relationship between police and the people they serve were priorities for his office.

“I want to make sure it’s the best office in the state, if not the country,” Grewal said at the time, “to make sure we have the best hiring, the best people, the best training and the best collaboration with our local departments.”

He speaks both Punjabi and Hindi, and comes from one of the fastest-growing segments of New Jersey’s population — Indian Americans.

The number of people of Indian descent in the state increased 73 percent during the 2000s. In Bergen, that number grew by 40 percent to 24,973 by 2010, or 2.8 percent of Bergen County’s overall population.