Letika Saran becomes first woman to head TN Police

Saran, who hit the headlines in 2006 by taking over the charge as the first woman police commissioner of a metropolitan city, will be the second woman to head a state police force in the country after Kanchan Chaudhry Bhattacharya in Uttarakhand.

Saran, who was handed over the baton by outgoing DGP K P Jain, however, played down the significance of becoming the first woman police chief of the state stating that "I am first an officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre."

She became the first woman police officer to head a metropolitan city police when she took over as Commissioner of Police of Madras in 2006.

In her interaction with the media after taking over as DGP, she said she never believed that women cannot head a force and insisted that whether man or woman, an officer had to meet the requirement to head a police force.

She said law and order situation in the state was being maintained and promised to give added focus on dealing with the crimes against women and children and "that is a (natural) feeling as a woman with utmost seriousness".

Saran was appointed days after the brutal killing of sub-inspector Vetrivel near Tirunelveli on January 6. The video footage of the police official crying for help evoked national outrage.

"It (the murder) has distressed us all. We would ensure that no personnel in uniform meets with such a fate in future," she said when asked about it.