This paper deciphers the late stress systems involved in the development of kink bands in the perspective of thrust regime. In kink bands, the correlation coefficient for 𝛼-𝛽 plots is positive near thrusts and negative away from thrusts. The plots show nearly linear relationship near thrusts and non-linear relationship away from thrusts. The rotation was prominent mechanism of kink band formation near thrusts and rotation coupled with shearing, along the kink planes away from thrusts. Along thrusts 𝜎₁ is horizontal E–W trend and it rotates to horizontal N–S trend away from the thrust. The proposed model establishes that (1) the shearing along kink planes led to angular relationship, 𝛽 > 𝛼 and (2) the kink planes of conjugate kinks could be used for paleostress analysis even in those cases where shearing along these planes has occurred.