IPS officer's poem lands herself in a row; senior asks who gave permission

SENIOR IPS officer from Kerala B Sandhya has landed up in a controversy not because of any of her file noting, but for writing a poem which depicts politicians, media and bureaucracy in poor light. The 50-year-old officer, currently an Additional Director General of Police, was asked to give an…
explanation by her senior whether she took any prior permission before penning the poem titled “I can be only like this” published in a Malayalam weekly. It was a long 50-lined poem, according to local media reports.

But Sandhya, who authored five books of literature and several research papers in police science, wrote in her explanation that all-India service rules do not demand prior permission for a literary work. A number of literary personalities from the state have supported the police officer who incidentally published yet another poem in Malayalam News, a Gulf-based daily even as the controversy for her earlier poem had continued.  Sandhya asks in her second poem, “how long you will reign in the whirlwind and roaring downpour”.

Sandhya studied human resources management at Wollongong University, Australia in 1998, and then got her PhD on accessibility of women to the criminal justice system from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani. She also led an investigation into allegations of sexual assault made against a former Kerala minister.

Sandhya is married to Dr K Madhukumar, Kerala University’s Controller of Examination. The couple has a daughter named Hyma, according to Wikipedia.