Kanchan Chaudhary Bhattacharya

Kanchan Chaudhary Bhattacharya (Hindi: कंचन चौधरी भट्टाचार्य) is a former Director General of Police in Uttarakhand Police and recently turned to politics, ran as a candidate of Aam Aadmi Party from Haridwar, Uttarakhand in the 2014 Indian general election. She was the first woman to become Director General of Police of a state and retired on 31 October 2007 from service.^[1] She was the second woman IPS officer in the country after Kiran Bedi.^[2]

Early life and education

She is the first child of Madan Mohan Chaudhary. She was born in Himachal and lived in Amritsar and Delhi.^[3] Chaudhary attended the Government College for Women, Amritsar.^[4] Later, she completed her post-graduation in English Literature from Indraprastha College, Delhi University,^[5] and Master in Business Administration from the University of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia in 1993.^[6] Her father was caught up in a property matter and was beaten up very badly, at that time police officers were not ready to register an FIR, this inspired her to become a police officer and help the people in need.^[7]

Career

She has 33 years of a scintillating career behind her. She was the second woman (after Kiran Bedi) to join the IPS officer’s batch of 1973. She was the first woman IPS officer in Uttar Pradesh and was appointed as the first woman Deputy General Inspector of Police in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh. She was then promoted to be the first woman Inspector General of Uttar Pradesh Police. She was the first woman to serve as the Additional Director General of Police in Uttaranchal and then was promoted to be the first woman Director General of Police in the state. She has handled a lot of sensitive cases in her career span of 33 years like the murder of seven times national badminton champion Syed Modi in 1987 and the Reliance-Bombay Dyeing case. She has also handled several white collar crimes in banks and public sectors.^[8]

She was selected to represent India at the Interpol meeting held in 2004 in Cancun, Mexico. She attended several special trainings and courses since 1980, six weeks in Human Resources Management (NITIE), Bombay, one week in Economic Crime Investigation Management, Singapore organized by the Common Wealth Secretariat, UK and a three weeks program in Advanced Management at the National Police Academy at Hyderabad. As the chairperson of the All India Women in Police, Uttarakhand Police, she hosted the 2nd Women in Police Conference that was praised by the President of India as "an excellent performance". She was selected to become DGP amongst a number of officers because of her integrity and sensitivity to the problems of the common man. She projected the issues relating to the recruitment, training and continuing of women in police in India at the DGPs Annual Conference and to the Training Heads from across the country on behalf of Bureau of Police Research and Development.

She has various other interests. She writes poetry and takes part in dramatics. She also made a guest appearance in Udaan (TV series) which was based on her life, written and directed by her sister Kavita Chaudhary.^[2]

Award

• President's Medal for long and meritorious services in 1989.
• President's Medal for distinguished services in 1997.
• Rajiv Gandhi Award in 2004 for excellent all round performance and as an outstanding woman achiever.

References