By IANS
New Delhi : After sitting over it for nearly one and a half months, the government Wednesday accepted the voluntary retirement plea of India’s first Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Kiran Bedi.
The government decided to relieve Bedi, who was holding the post of the director general of Bureau of Police Research and Development, from her duties immediately.
According to sources the union home ministry has decided to relieve Bedi from her duties as early as Monday.
“I have received the letter relieving me from the government,” Bedi told IANS, confirming the government order. She has already given up her charge at the bureau.
Bedi was clearly irked over being bypassed for the post of Delhi Police chief after Y.S. Dadwal, two years her junior, was preferred this July.
“If the government thought that I was dispensable for the post of Delhi’s commissioner of police, I think I am dispensable for any other government job,” Bedi had told IANS earlier.
Magasaysay Award winner Bedi had submitted her voluntary retirement application Nov 15, saying she wanted to quit to pursue her “strong academic and social interests”.
The home ministry had indicated last week that it wanted Bedi at its proposed ‘national police mission’ project, but she said she was not willing to work “for the government” any more.
A 1972-batch IPS officer, Bedi was keen to take charge of the Delhi Police, which she has served in various capacities.
A law graduate from Delhi University, Bedi is also a former all-India and all-Asia tennis champion.
Bedi became a household name in the Indian capital when she took charge of Delhi Traffic Police, earning in the process the sobriquet “Crane Bedi” because of her penchant for using cranes to remove vehicles parked illegally.
She then went on to hold several posts, including deputy inspector general of police in Mizoram, inspector general of police in Chandigarh, director general of Narcotics Control Bureau, inspector general of police at Tihar Jail, and back at Delhi Police, joint commissioner of training and special commissioner in charge of intelligence.
She earned worldwide fame for her efforts to reform Delhi’s Tihar Jail.
She also went on deputation to the United Nations.