India, April 29 -- R Sreelekha, a retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer with over three decades of service from 1987 to 2020, was also Kerala's first woman IPS officer and later its first woman Director General of Police (DGP). She is now contesting from the Vattiyoorkavu constituency in Thiruvananthapuram as a BJP candidate in the 2026 Kerala Assembly elections.

Sreelekha stepped into politics after joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2024, and in 2025, she was elected as a councillor from Ward No. 41, Sasthamangalam, in Thiruvananthapuram.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Hindustan Times....