Lady IPS Harassed in Hyd: What About Common Women?

A shocking incident in Hyderabad has once again raised serious concerns about women’s safety at night. Sumati, the Commissioner of Police of Malkajgiri, was allegedly harassed by a group of men during a late-night plainclothes operation in Dilsukhnagar on May 6.

Senior IPS officer Sumati was reportedly conducting a surprise operation between midnight and 3:30 am to assess women’s safety on city streets. Dressed in plain clothes and without revealing her identity, she moved through the area when several men allegedly surrounded her and passed vulgar remarks like “Will you come?” and “How much is the rate?”

The men reportedly did not know they were harassing a senior police officer.

Soon after the incident, police teams detained around 40 individuals during the operation.

What shocked many was the profile of those detained. According to preliminary findings, most were not habitual offenders but students and salaried employees. Several were also reportedly under the influence of ganja. Police later counselled the detained individuals before proceeding with legal action.

The incident has triggered widespread discussion about how unsafe public spaces can become for women at night, despite increased policing and awareness campaigns.

Ironically, the operation itself was meant to understand the ground reality of women’s safety, and the incident ended up exposing exactly the problem it was trying to study.