Pride of Mumbai Crime Branch

Last week we had staff of the Maharashtra police at our hospital for a BMI check-up. Body Mass Index is a count calculated with your height and weight. It tells you if your weight is perfect according to your height.

We were quite impressed with the police uniform and the pride with which they all carried off their uniforms... our discussion started with how tough their life can be with upto 12 hours duty in any weather and how important it is to be fit. There were a few women present as well and we were happy to see them look as tough as their male counterparts. And thats how we started talking about Mrs. Meera Borwankar - never heard of her...????

Wellll..... meet the first lady-chief of the Mumbai Crime Branch...

The daughter of a police officer from Punjab, Meera Borwankar is known for her no-nonsense attitude. An IPS officer of the 1981 batch, the 48-year-old served as deputy commissioner of police in Mumbai from 1987-91.

In 1999, she was promoted as Deputy Inspector General of Police and sent to work with the Central Bureau of Investigation. After three years, she went to the US to do a comparative study of the police forces. On her return, she organised refresher courses and held programmes across the state to encourage women to join the police force. She was promoted to the rank of Inspector General of Police in September 2003.

She won praise for her investigation into the Jalgaon sex scandal and was honoured with President’s Medal in 1997.

With this appointment in 2004, Meera was in charge of all the 12 units of crime branch, anti extortion cell, economic offences wing, extradition cell, cyber crime cell, social service branch and various other units.

Interesting... isn't it? and also very inspiring...

PS: Am not quite sure if she's still the chief of the Crime Branch - maybe her designation has changed now (it happens quite often in government jobs...)

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