T.P. Senkumar is a man of strong views. The new State Police Chief (SPC) also has a predilection for openly articulating them. The personality trait has shown up often in his 32 years of police service.
It has set him apart from most other ranking officers of his generation who seem taciturn in comparison. The tendency has won him applause and criticism in equal measure.
In 2013, Mr. Senkumar courted controversy when he said he had glimpsed a shade of colonial era ‘colour prejudice’ in the arrest of actor Kalabhavan Mani on the charge of assaulting Forest Department officers.
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He was back in the spotlight a year later when he said that a popular Mohanlal movie, depicting a furtive mobile phone camera capture that resulted in murder, set a wrong example for families of minor girls who could potentially face similar predicaments in life.
Mr. Senkumar has constantly maintained that police officers muster the courage to state the truth to the political executive, however harsh it might be.
Mr. Senkumar’s critics in law enforcement say he sometimes sounds like an utopian idealist.
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He can be tactless at times, they say. However, none of them deny him his professional acumen.
Pace of work
Senior officers say Mr. Senkumar is fundamentally an investigator with a capacity for gruelling work. He has scores of detections to his credit. His approach to combating crime is proactive. Economic offences are his forte.
In 2006, he had dismantled a cunningly conceived ponzi scheme that cheated poor people of their savings. In the process, he earned the praise of the High Court.
An early riser, Mr. Senkumar likes to jog in the morning and play shuttle badminton in the evening. He puts much stock on the physical fitness of policemen.
He has a tenure of two years and nine months as SPC.