Thiruvananthapuram: R Sreelekha became the first woman to be bestowed with the rank of the director general of police in Kerala. The state cabinet also promoted Tomin J Thachankary, Arun Kumar Sinha, and Sudhesh Kumar to the top rank on Wednesday.
Sreelekha’s promotion is a crack on the glass ceiling, just as in 1988 when she became the first woman IPS officer in Kerala and in 1991 when she became the first woman superintendent of police in the state.
A recipient of the president’s police medal for her work with the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau, Sreelekha has said that the force performs in accordance with the performance of top officers. She is currently an additional director general of police in charge of prisons.
Sreelekha assumes the new role on a wave of expectations. She had promised to bring more women as deputy superintendents of police, circle inspectors and sub inspectors if she were to be made a DGP in charge of law and order. She had said that women officers were more suitable to investigate complaints from women. Women in police are confined to arrest women and control women in an agitation, she said in an interview.
The officer has earned the moniker of “Raid” Sreelekha during her stint with the Central Bureau of Investigation.
She is known to take to task policemen who hesitate to salute her or address her as “sir” or “madam”.
She is married to pediatric surgeon Dr Sethunath. They have a son, Gokulnath.
The officer has already published 10 books including three works on crime investigation.
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