Rising from a humble background, Kulwant K. Sarangal qualified for the prestigious Civil Services Examination in 1990 and was allotted the Indian Police Service. He started his educational journey from the Government Primary School in village Mustafabad in Amritsar district. He attended the Government Senior Secondary School, Verka, after completing fifth standard and went on to graduate from the DAV College, Amritsar. He passed out from the Mathematics Department of the Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, in 1985, after completing his masters. He briefly worked as an officer in a Public Sector Bank before joining the prestigious IPS.

He was allotted to Maharashtra Cadre on joining the IPS where he served for about 12 years heading various districts as district police chief. Then he joined the premier Intelligence Agency of the country and served in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and West Bengal. Along the way, he completed his law degree from the Pune University and also did course on mass communication and journalism and few courses on disaster management conducted by the National Institute of Disaster Management, New Delhi and World Bank.

He is working as Additional Director General of Police in Maharashtra Police at present.

Apart from having crime busting skills, he also specializes in intelligence, counterterrorism, and disaster management. Besides, he has deep knowledge of mass gatherings and crowds and their management.

He has published a number of papers on crime and crowd management subjects.