Kerala’s first woman IPS officer R Sreelekha Wednesday joined the BJP. Retired in 2020 as the director general of Kerala Fire and Rescue Service, Sreelekha, also a writer, was also the first woman IPS officer of DGP rank in Kerala. After joining the BJP, Sreelekha told the media that Prime Minister Modi's charisma made her join the party. “I have faith in BJP's ideologies. I am joining BJP after three-week-long thinking. It was three weeks back that the BJP approached me asking to join the party. I had been an impartial officer in service. But after retirement, based on my experience, I realise this is my best way to serve the people," she said. Describing Sreelekha as a “brave officer”, the state BJP president K Surendran said the ex-IPS officer was familiar with Kerala and had brought in several reforms to the police. “She had fought for women's rights in the police force. The untouchability towards BJP is over in Kerala,” he told the media. Sreelekha joined BJP at a time Kerala is debating ADGP MR Ajith Kumar's meetings with senior RSS leaders in recent years. She’s the second ex-IPS officer after former DGP Jacob Thomas to join the party after retirement. After joining the BJP in February 2021, Jacob Thomas had contested the state assembly elections from Irinjalakuda assembly constituency but lost to the Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s R Bindu. An IPS officer of 1987 batch, Sreelekha had strained relations with the CPI(M) government in Kerala towards the end of her career. On her retirement day, she had abstained from a formal farewell party and guard of honour given to DGP-rank officers. A native of Thiruvananthapuram, she had been a college lecturer and a bank officer before joining the civil service. She served as SP in various districts and later as DIG and IG. While on central deputation, she had worked with the CBI for four years. She has also authored nine books. After retirement, Sreelekha had courted controversy when she said that she, as the director general of prisons, had given a special consideration and better facilities to actor Dileep while he was lodged in a jail in connection with 2017 case pertaining to the abduction and sexual assault of an actor in a moving vehicle. She had also stated then that she believed in Dileep’s innocence in the case. Her statement calling Pulsar Suni, the prime accused in the actor assault case, a “habitual offender” had even led to an FIR against her. In 2016, while serving as ADGP, she had alleged that fellow ADGP Tomin J Thachankary “had been haunting her since her IPS training days in 1987”, blaming him for a vigilance probe she had faced in connection with a vehicle tax evasion case.
