A stern police officer and a gentlewoman!
Police officers are considered tough but Charu showed her human side too. SANJAY SINGH, social activist
LUCKNOW/GORAKHPUR: IPS officer Charu Nigam, who was berated by BJP MLA from Gorakhpur assembly seat Radha Mohan Das Agarwal, had taken on the might of the mining mafia as well as illicit liquor smugglers during her posting in Jhansi.
“She is right when she says to not misinterpret her tears as weakness,” says social activist Sanjay Singh, who works in the Bundelkhand region.
She conducted raids on illegal mining sites and ordered crackdown on the anti-social elements running unlicensed mining ventures. Threats and pressure tactics adopted by local peoples representatives failed to deter her. She also launched a drive against the land grabbers and won the hearts of the havenots, he said.
It was Nigam’s first posting as trainee IPS officer. During her stint in Jhansi, she worked as ASP, Barua Sagar. “Police officers are considered tough but Charu showed her human side too. Once while she was going to Jhansi she saw a boy bleeding on the road side. She stopped her car took the injured boy to hospital,” Singh said. She motivated the people to participate in the blood donation camp organized by Maharani Laxmibai Medical College in Jhansi. “She was inquisitive and eager to learn the rules of policing. When she came to know that a clerk, Gurudev, posted in Kotwali police station in Jhansi was good in drafting, she did not hesitate learning from him,” said local journalist Mahesh Paterea said.
She was transferred to Gorakhpur in December 2016. As in-charge of anti-Romeo squad, she was unforgiving for elements indulging in eve teasing. She was also in news when she deatined lawyers who created ruckus during the MLC election.
Born in a middle class family in Agra, Charu, a 2013 batch IPS officer from UP cadre, did her BTech from IIT Roorkie before trying her luck in civil services to fulfill wish of her father MS Nigam, who worked as engineer with Delhi Development Authority.
In 2011, she suffered a huge jolt when she lost her father, an incident which pushed her into a state of severe depression, affecting her health, career and family. It took her about a year to recover to continue her preparation for civil services. She says she failed to crack the civil service exam in 2012 but succeeded in the second attempt in 2013.
Recalling the school and college days, she says she used to be a student who laughed every moment and even got punishment for that.