Woman cop to continue in service after sex-change operation: Maharashtra govt

Mumbai: Maharashtra government on Thursday said it had decided to permit a woman cop to undergo a sex-change operation and continue in the state police as a 'policeman'. "Yes, I have requested Director General of Police (Satish Mathur) to consider her case favorably," Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis told media. The 28-year-old woman constable Lalita Kumari Salve joined the Maharashtra Police in May 2010, and is currently serving in Majalgaon City police station in Beed district. Salve has already changed her name to 'Lalit Kumar Salve'. An official from the Chief Minister's Office said that Fadnavis spoke to DGP Mathur late on Wednesday. The application for permission to continue in service after her sex-change operation was earlier rejected by the Home Department. Following the rejection, Salve moved to the Bombay High Court on Thursday against the state government. Salve moved to the High Court through her lawyer Syed Ejaz Abbas Naqvi, challenging the Beed Superintendent of Police's order of November 20 which rejected her leave for sex-realignment surgery. The issue has been debated in social media and police circles as she was selected in the women's quota that specifies certain physical parameters different from those specified for male recruits.