IPS officer Sanjukta Parashar becomes first woman IG of CRPF’s CoBRA jungle warfare unit

IPS officer Sanjukta Parashar has been appointed as the Inspector General of the CRPF's elite CoBRA jungle warfare unit, making her the first woman to lead the 10-battalion-strong force. She succeeds 1996-batch officer Danesh Rana

New Delhi: IPS officer Sanjukta Parasor has been appointed the Inspector General (IG) of the CRPF’s special jungle warfare commando unit, CoBRA, the first woman to hold the post.
Parasor is a 2006-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer from the Assam-Meghalaya cadre.

The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) headquarters issued an order to this effect last week. Parasor will succeed 1996-batch IPS officer Danesh Rana as the IG of the Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA).

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“This is the first time that the ten-battalion-strong CoBRA of the CRPF will be headed by a woman officer,” a senior officer told PTI.

Parasor previously served in the National Investigation Agency (NIA), in addition to working in her cadre state of Assam.

The CRPF raised CoBRA in 2008-09 to tackle Left Wing Extremism (LWE) in multiple Indian states, and insurgency in certain Northeast states.

Two CoBRA units were recently deployed by the CRPF to check armed violence in Manipur.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) credits the battalion’s commandos with successful intelligence-based jungle warfare and guerrilla operations against Naxals, which led to the end of Maoist violence in the country this March.

The order also notified the posting of V K Birdi (IPS 2003-batch) as the new IG of the CRPF VIP security wing, replacing CRPF cadre officer Sunil Joon, who has been posted to the force’s officers’ academy in Gurugram.