The Kerala Police will get its first woman Director General of Police as ADGP R. Sreelekha assumes charge as the new head of the Fire and Rescue Services on June 1.
First lady IPS officer turned first lady DGP
Sreelekha, the incumbent Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) is the first lady IPS officer in Kerala.
Sreelekha, along with Road Safety Commissioner N Shankar Reddy are promoted to DGP rank as veteran DGPs Jacob Thomas and A Hemachandran are retiring soon.
The decision was announced after the Cabinet meeting held on Wednesday.
Sreelekha is an IPS officer of the 1987 batch. She became the first woman Superintendent of Police in Kerala in 1991 and since then served in various positions in the Police service.
She had served as the District Police Chief of Alappuzha, Pathanamthitta, and Thrissur districts, the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) in Ernakulam, and also worked in Kochi and New Delhi offices of the CBI.
A recipient of the president's police medal for her work with the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau, Sreelekha has also been the managing director of Rubber Marketing Federation, Kerala State Construction Corporation and Road, and Bridge Development Corporation.
In addition to this, Sreelekha was assigned as the investigating officer of most of the prominent cases in the state including the Praveen murder case, Kilimanoor case and irregularities in Consumer Fed.
The officer, slated to retire from service in December this year had got the DGP's status two years back; but had to remain off the service as the Centre allows only four DGPs in Kerala.
