IPS officer’s report sees Kerala minister out of the cabinet

By Vijay Kumar

When Dr. Sandhya, the 1988 batch IPS officer was appointed to probe into the misbehaviour case against Kerala minister PJ Joseph, people did not believe that a police officer could give a report against a ruling minister. Joseph was accused of misbehaving with a woman co-passenger on a flight from Chennai to Cochin while the lights were off during take off. Joseph himself demanded probe by a senior woman IPS officer and IG Sandhya was the obvious choice. In her report, the IG said that the victim stood by her allegations and it was possible that such an act might have occurred on board. She ruled out any conspiracy theory as propounded by Joseph. And Joseph is out of the cabinet.

Dr. Sandhya is a scholarly police officer, an accomplished poet and painter; has undergone training in Human Resources Management from Wollongong University, Australia in 1998. She passed PGDBA from Pondichery University, Pondichery in 1999 and took PhD Degree from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani in 2005. The topic of research was 'Accessibility of Women to Criminal Justice System'.

On a trekking to the Himalayas in her academy days, she along with her friend ate some forest fruit unable to withstand the hunger. After the hunger was satiated, they were worried whether the fruits were poisonous. If that meant death, she says, death was better than hunger. She wrote, “Even death is sweet if it appears as food”. At that moment she decided, “if at all I survive, I should be able to do something to reduce hunger; beyond that this life does not offer anything good”

In her poem, “files”, she wrote

In files, a hundred accounts doze

In files, a thousand interpretations for laws

In files what is the value for values?

In files, who touches the questions contained?

In files, who sees the life?

Joseph is out of his job, and Sandhya must be back to her job and poetry.