First woman DGP of Uttarakhand Kanchan Choudhary Bhattacharya is no more

Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat has expressed his grief and sorrow over the sad demise of the first woman Director General of Police of Uttarakhand and condoled her untimely death. Kanchan Choudhary Bhattacharya the second woman IPS after Kiran Bedi, currently, the Lt Governor of Puducherry met her last in Mumbai after suffering from a brief illness. She had retired from her service and was staying in Mumbai.

Kanchan Chowdhary’ s sister Kavita Choudhary had made a popular television serial on her life namely Udaan for Doordarshan several years ago which was quite a hit on the small screen. Originally hailing from Himachal Pradesh, Kanchan Choudhary Bhattacharya completed her graduation from Rajkiya Women College, Amritsar and thereafter pursued her post-graduation in English literature from Delhi University.

She joined the India Police Service in 1973 and was quite an ebullient officer. After serving in various important capacities she was elevated as the Director-General of Uttarakhand police in 2004, as the first woman DG of the hilly state after IPS Kiran Bedi who had been IG Prisons of Tihar Jail before retiring from her long challenging innings.

She retired from service as DGP Uttarakhand Police in October 2017 after rendering thirteen years of dedicated services as DG Police of Uttarakhand. During her long stint of more than a decade, Kanchan Choudhary Bhattacharya had made a good number of reforms in Uttarakhand police giving it the title of ‘Friendly Police’. It was because of her outstanding services as an exemplary officer of high decorum that she was bestowed with the coveted President’s Police Medal at Rashtrapati Bhawan in 1997.

Being a well-read and highly qualified officer she always had an urge to serve the poor, needy and the people of the lowest ebb of the society and was therefore impressed by the crusader against corruption Anna Hazare’ s movement. She, therefore, joined the Aam Aadmi Party of Arvind Kejriwal and contested the parliamentary election from Haridwar but lose.

An academician and an ebullient police officer of repute Kanchan Chaudhary Bhattacharya breathed her last, last night in a Mumbai hospital after suffering from a brief illness. Though she has left for her heavenly abode, as an officer of high reputation and fighting spirit Kanchan would be a source of inspiration for the aspiring girls interested to become IPS officers in the near future. Our heartfelt condolences.