Archana Ramasundaram (born 1 October 1957), also spelt as Archana Ramasundram, is a retired Indian police officer who was a member of

Tamil Nadu Police Tamil Nadu Police is the primary law enforcement agency of the state of Tamil Nadu, India. It is over 150 years old and is the fifth largest state police force in India.

. She served in the

Indian Police Service The Indian Police Service ( IPS) is a civil service under the All India Services. It replaced the Indian Imperial Police in 1948, a year after India became independent from the British Raj. Along with the Indian Administrative Service (I ...

(IPS) for 37 years until her retirement in 2018 and was the first woman police officer of India to lead a central paramilitary force. Her husband Ramasundaram served as a senior state IAS officer in the state of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...

until 2011.

Career

She pursued her career as a police officer after her graduation in

Economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...

from the

University of Rajasthan University of Rajasthan is a public and state university in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India and is one of the oldest universities in the state. It was set up on 8 January 1947 as the University of Rajputana Rājputana, meaning "Land of the ...

. She joined the Indian Police Service in 1980 and was the only woman officer in the 1980 batch. In 1989, she completed her

Master of Science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast t ...

in Criminology from the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

. In 1995, she was awarded the President's Medal. In May 2014, she joined the CBI as additional director and was the first woman officer in India to be inducted as an additional director in the Central Bureau of Investigation. Her appointment was legally challenged by the

Government of Tamil Nadu Government of Tamil Nadu is the subnational government for the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is seated at Fort St George, Chennai. The legislature of Tamil Nadu was bicameral until 1986, when it was replaced by a unicameral legislature, l ...

at the Supreme Court considering it as an illegal appointment and the Supreme Court gave verdict against the appointment of Archana. She was also suspended from the post of DGP by the Tamil Nadu government for not requesting permission prior to the appointment. In 2015, she was sacked from the CBI and was appointed as the Director General of the

National Crime Records Bureau The National Crime Records Bureau, abbreviated to NCRB, is an Indian government agency responsible for collecting and analyzing crime data as defined by the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Special and Local Laws (SLL). NCRB is headquartered in New ...

. However she was nominated for the position of CBI chief in 2017 despite her controversial selection into the CBI in 2015. On 3 February 2016, she was appointed as the Director General of

Sashastra Seema Bal Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB; ) is a border guarding force of India deployed along its borders with Nepal and Bhutan. It is one of the seven Central Armed Police Forces under the administrative control of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). The fo ...

and was the first woman police officer to be officially appointed to lead a paramilitary force. In July 2018, Archana was replaced by Rajni Kant Mishra as the new Director General of Sashatra Seema Bal division. Archana retired from the IPS in 2018, a career which spanned for 37 years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ramasundaram, Archana 1957 births Living people Indian women police officers 21st-century Indian women 21st-century Indian people People from Tamil Nadu University of Rajasthan alumni University of Southern California alumni

Career

See also

References