‘Iron Lady’ Sanjukta Parashar becomes 1st woman to head CRPF’s CoBRA unit

Sanjukta Parashar, a 47-year-old Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, has made history by becoming the first woman to lead the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF)’s Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA). Parashar, a 2006 batch Assam-Meghalaya cadre officer, assumed her new role after the government moved two battalions of the unit to Manipur to combat ongoing ethnic violence.

In this high-pressure environment, CoBRA commandos have been actively raiding areas to apprehend insurgents and confiscate weapons stolen from police armouries. The battalion, established in 2008 to counter the Maoist insurgency, played a pivotal role in ultimately ending Left Wing Extremism. Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced this year that the March 31 deadline for eradicating Maoism across the nation had been met, with 4,839 insurgents surrendering, 706 killed, and 2,218 arrested during the past three years of intensified anti-Maoist operations.

Parashar, who has been on deputation with CRPF since August, took over as the Inspector General (IG) of CoBRA, replacing Danish Rana, an IPS officer from the 1996 batch of Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram, and Union Territories cadre. Hailing from the northeast, Parashar has earned the moniker 'Iron Lady' due to her successful leadership of counter-insurgency operations in the region.

Prior to her current appointment, she served as an Assam Police superintendent, headed the state’s Crime Investigation Department, and worked with the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for federal counterterrorism law enforcement and investigative duties.