HYDERABAD: B Sumathi, the woman police officer who played a key role in convincing top Maoists to surrender before the Telangana police only a couple of months ago, recently got a taste of exactly how safe women feel in parts of Hyderabad after sundown.After taking over as police commissioner of newly formed Malkajgiri commissionerate, she spent a few hours in plainclothes on the streets of Dilsukhnagar post midnight on May 2 only to have multiple men approach her, with some even making lewd comments.The no-nonsense top cop pretended to be waiting for a bus late at night. During the operation, officers picked up more than 40 men, mostly teenagers and even middle aged men for trying to solicit women standing alone or walking alone in the streets. Officials said many of the men were either drunk or had consumed ganja. They were later sent for counselling.Sumathi, who is the first woman police commissioner in the Greater Hyderabad region, was responsible for mass surrender of Maoists including Central Committee members like Devuji during her previous stint as the head of anti-Naxal wing of the Special Intelligence Branch (SIB) of Telangana police.The officer decided to go on a walk around the streets of the populous residential area without uniformed cops accompanying her. As she stood at the Dilsukhnagar bus stop, several youngsters and middle-aged men started approaching her with unsavory remarks.Police patrolling vehicles passed by a few times, but they did not stop as she had not informed the local police station about her presence there. She kept moving in the same locality for about three hours and finally at around 3.30 am, a patrolling team constable noticed her. Soon, night duty officers reached the spot.Night patrolling continued for the next three days with a drone, local police and She Teams officials in the same locality.. “Most of the men we detained were teenagers living in private hostels or rented rooms in surrounding areas. They study in nearby institutions. They have been counseled in the presence of family members,” Sumathi told TOI.There are about 600 private hostels in the area. Police officials found out that in many of those places, basic security mechanisms like CCTV cameras and their recordings are not maintained.The police commissioner decided to call the hostel owners, managers, members of local residents associations and pan shop operators for a meeting to discuss steps to rein in unruly youth harassing women at night.
