Denied the opportunity of being the first woman director of the Central Bureau of Investigation, 1983-batch IPS officer Rina Mitra has now been appointed by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as the state's principal internal security advisor.
Mitra, despite meeting all criteria for the post, was bumped out of consideration for the CBI chief's post after the selection committee decided to defer its meeting to the day just after her retirement.
After retiring from the Indian police after 35 years of service, she penned her story in The Telegraph where she disclosed the many hurdles she had to face in her journey, both as a woman and a professional, before finally facing what she called was the ‘last glass ceiling’ she encountered in her profession.
"I did qualify on all parameters to be considered for selection to head the premier investigating body of the country, the CBI... I was indeed the senior-most officer fulfilling all the four essential criteria. However, an easily avoidable delay of just one day in the selection process ensured that I was bumped out of the race and no longer in contention,” Mitra wrote in The Telegraph.
“It forced me to wonder if this was indeed the last glass ceiling I encountered in my professional career,” she added.
The high-level selection committee, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, went with Madhya Pradesh’s Former Director General of Police IPS Rishi Kumar Shukla instead, who took charge as the new director on Monday, 4 February.
In a career spanning over 34 years, Mitra, an officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre, has served the state in various capacities – as the district superintendent of police of three districts, DIG, IG CID and inspector general, among others.
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