Kiran Bedi Age, Husband, Children, Family, Biography & More

Bio/Wiki
Real Name	Kiran Peshawaria
Nickname	Crane Bedi
Profession(s)	Politician, Civil Servant (retired IPS)
Famous For	Being the first female IPS Officer
Physical Stats & More
Height (approx.)	in centimeters- 161 cm in meters- 1.61 m in feet inches- 5’ 3”
Weight (approx.)	in kilograms- 55 kg in pounds- 121 lbs
Eye Colour	Black
Hair Colour	Black
Civil Service
Service	Indian Police Service (IPS)
Batch	1972
Cadre	Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram-Union Territories (AGMUT)
Major Designation(s)	1975: Sub-Divisional Police Officer at the Chanakyapuri Police Station in New Delhi. 1979: DCP Delhi's West District. 1981: DCP (Traffic) Delhi. 1983: SP (Traffic) Goa. 1984: Deputy Commandant (Railway Protection Force in New Delhi). 1984: Deputy Director (Department of Industrial Development). 1985: Assigned to the Police Headquaters, New Delhi. 1986: DCP of Delhi's North District. 1988: Deputy Director (Operations) in the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Delhi. 1990: Deputy Inspector General (Range), Mizoram. 1993: Inspector General (IG) of the Delhi Prisons. 1995: Additional Commissioner (policy and planning) at the Police Academy, Delhi. 1996: Joint Commissioner of Police of Delhi Police. 1997: Special Commissioner (Intelligence) of Delhi Police. 1999: Inspector-General of Police in Chandigarh. 2003: Appointed the United Nations Civilian Police Adviser. 2005: Director General, Home Guards. 2007: Director General of the Bureau of Police Research and Development. In November, she resigned from the Police Service; citing personal reasons.
Awards, Honours, Achievements	1968: NCC Cadet Officer Award. 1979: President's Police Medal for Gallantry for her role in preventing violence during Akali-Nirankari clashes. 1994: Ramon Magsaysay Award for government service. 1995: Lion of the Year by Lions Club, KK Nagar for community service. 2004: United Nations Medal for outstanding service. 2005: Mother Teresa Memorial National Award for Social Justice by All India Christian Council for reforms in prison and penal systems. 2006: Most Admired Woman in the Country by The Week magazine. 2014: L’Oreal Paris Femina Women Award for social impact.
Politics
Political Party	Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
Political Journey	2015: Joined BJP and was projected as BJP's Chief Minister (CM) candidate for the 2015 Delhi Assembly elections; however, she lost the election from Krishna Nagar constituency to AAP candidate SK Bagga by a margin of 2277 votes. 2016: On 22 May, appointed as the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry. 2021: On 16 February, Rashtrapati Bhavan withdrew Ms Bedi from the post of the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry.
Personal Life
Date of Birth	9 June 1949 (Thursday)
Age (as of 2024)	75 Years
Birthplace	Amritsar, Punjab
Zodiac sign	Gemini
Signature
Nationality	Indian
Hometown	Amritsar, Punjab
School	Sacred Heart Convent School, Amritsar (1954)
College/University	• Government College for Women, Amritsar • Panjab University, Chandigarh • Delhi University, New Delhi • IIT, Delhi
Educational Qualification(s)	• BA (Hons. in English) (1968) • MA (Political Science) • Law Degree from Delhi University (1988) • PhD (Social Sciences) (1993)
Religion	Hinduism
Caste	Khatri [1]Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and North West Frontier Province By Sir Denzil Ibbetson, Maclagan
Food Habit	Non-Vegetarian
Address	56, First Floor, Uday Park, New Delhi-110049
Hobbies	Playing Lawn Tennis, Photography, Travelling, Reading, Writing
Controversies	• In 1983, while serving in Goa, she attracted a controversy when she informally inaugurated the Zuari Bridge for the public. This unofficial inauguration had angered many politicians. • In the same year, she again attracted controversy when she was on leave to look after her ailing duaghter, Sukriti, in Delhi. Although she had applied for the leave, which was also recommended by the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Rajendra Mohan, the leave was not officially sanctioned by the Goa government. She was even declared absconding and absent without leave by the then Chief Minister of Goa Pratapsingh Rane • In the 1980s, she was criticised for ordering lathi charge on a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) assembly in Red Fort area. • In January 1988, she got involved in a feud with Delhi's lawyers when she presented a person named Rajesh Agnihotri as handcuffed in the court. The person was recognised as a lawyer practising at the Tis Hazari Court. The lawyers got angered; as a lawyer couldn't be handcuffed; even if he was involved in a serious crime. • In 1992, when Sukriti, Kiran Bedi's daughter, applied for a seat in Lady Hardinge Medical College (Delhi), under a quota for Mizoram residents, a fierce protest was started by the students of Mizoram against the allocation, on the pretext that she was a non-Mizo. Later, Bedi had to leave Mizoram for the same. • In the 90s, while working as the Inspector General (IG) of Tihar Jail, Bedi attracted envy from her superiors, who accused Bedi of diminishing prison's security for personal glory. • In July 1993, the Supreme Court of India made her aware of ignoring the apex court's directives regarding giving medical attention to an under-trial prisoner. • In 1994, she again attracted envy from the Delhi Government when the then US President Bill Clinton invited her to National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C, but the Delhi Government had refused to let her accept the invitation. In 1995, when she was again invited by Bill Clinton, and again, the Delhi Government refused to let her accept the invitation, she went on to publish a newsletter in the New York Times; criticising some of her superiors for inculcating jealousy for her meteoric rise in the governance. • She was also criticised for providing a typewriter to the notorious criminal Charles Sobhraj; who was imprisoned in the Tihar at that time. A typewriter is one of the prohibited items as per the jail manual. • On 26 November 2011, based on a complained filed by a Delhi-based lawyer Devinder Singh Chauhan, the crime branch of Delhi police registered a case against her for improper use of funds meant for the NGOs.
Relationships & More
Marital Status	Widow
Affairs/Boyfriends	Brij Bedi (Tennis Player)
Marriage Date	9 March 1972
Family
Husband/Spouse	Brij Bedi (Tennis Player); died in 2016 of cardiac arrest
Children	Daughter- Sukriti (Saina) (born in September 1975)
Parents	Father- Prakash Lal Peshawaria (Textile Businessman) Mother- Prem Lata
Siblings	Brother None Sisters • Shashi • Reeta Peshawariya (Tennis Player, Writer) • Anu (Tennis Player)
Favourite Things
Sport	Lawn Tennis
Politician	Narendra Modi
Style Quotient
Car Collection	Maruti 800 (Regn. No. DBB239) Model 1985
Assets/Properties	Movable Banka Balance Worth ₹2.5 Crore (approx.) Jewellery A pair of ear tops weighing 5 gm; worth ₹27 thousand Immovable • 4.76 acre agricultural land worth more than ₹1 Crore in Village Mirawadi, Taluka Daund Distt. Pune, Maharashtra • 2 acre agricultural land worth more than ₹50 lakh at Village Siwana, Sub Distt. Bhondsi, Gurgaon, Haryana • 5113 sq.ft industrial plot worth more than ₹30 lakh at Industrial Development Colony, Amritsar • 1938 sq.ft residential flat worth more than ₹4 Crore (First Floor, 56, Uday Park, New Delhi) • 1414 sq.ft residential flat worth more than ₹1 Crore (Flat No.301, Janki Co-op Group Housing Society, Plot No.7, Sector-22, Dwarka, New Delhi) • 3229 sq.ft residential flat worth more than ₹1 Crore (F-07, Plot No.01, P-7, Builders Area Greater Noida Dist. Gautam Budh nagar, Uttar Pradesh)
Money Factor
Salary (as the Governor of Puducherry)	Rs. 3.5 lakh (as of 2018)
Net Worth (approx.)	Rs. 11 Crore (as in 2014)

Some Lesser Known Facts About Kiran Bedi

• Does Kiran Bedi smoke?: No

• Does Kiran Bedi drink alcohol?: No

• Her great-great-grandfather had migrated from Peshawar to Amritsar.

• She was brought up in both Hindu and Sikh traditions.

• Her father was an active Lawn Tennis player. Later, Kiran Bedi got inspired by her father and started playing Tennis at the age of 9.

• Kiran Bedi went on to play professional Tennis at the National level and also represented India in Sri Lanka; where the Indian team won the Lionel Fonseka Memorial Trophy in 1973.

• It’s said that the reason behind her short-cut-hair is Tennis; as Bedi didn’t consider long hairs comfortable while playing the sport.
  

  Kiran Bedi Playing Lawn Tennis

• While in school, she joined the National Cadet Corps (NCC) and actively participated in extra-curricular activities.

• After completing her master’s degree in political science from Panjab University, Chandigarh, she worked as a lecturer at Khalsa College for Women in Amritsar from 1970 to 1972.

• She was inspired to join the Indian civil services by the civil servants at the Service Club in Amritsar. There, she also met her future husband Raj Bedi.

• After being inducted into the Indian Police Service in 1972, Bedi underwent 9 months of police training at Mount Abu in Rajasthan.
  

  Kiran Bedi

• In the popular media, Kiran Bedi is slated to be the first woman IPS officer.

• After her first posting to the Chanakyapuri subdivision of Delhi in 1975, she went on to become the first woman to lead the all-male contingent of the Delhi Police at the Republic Day Parade in 1975.
  

  Kiran Bedi Leading The Republic Day Parade 1975

• On 15 November 1978, she successfully handled the clashes of Nirankari and Akali Sikhs near India Gate in Delhi and was honoured with the Police Medal for Gallantry by the Indian President in October 1980 for the same.
  

  Kiran Bedi Being Honoured

• In 1979, she creditably reduced the crime in the West District of Delhi by recruiting civilian volunteers in each nearby village, night patrolling by civilians and armed policemen, installing complaint boxes in each ward, and by implementing an open door policy that helped citizens to interact with her directly for any complaint.

• In October 1981, she became DCP (Traffic) and skillfully handled the traffic crises (caused by the 1982 Asian Games) with the co-operation of Delhi Electric Supply Undertaking, Municipal Corporation, and Development Authority of Delhi. She also used the policies like replacing challans with spot fines for erratic motorists and towing the improperly parked vehicles.
  

  Kiran Bedi Impounding The Car Of The Prime Minister Office

• She collected the traffic guidance materials worth ₹3,500,000 with the help of sponsors and provided four-wheelers (first time) to the inspectors working in the traffic unit in Delhi. During this time, she also acquired the name ‘Crane Bedi’ due to her unbiased implementation of traffic laws and lauding the Sub-Inspector Nirmal Singh who towed-away the Ambassador car of the Prime Minister Office (PMO), which was not properly parked.

• After the Asian Games, when ‘Asian Jyoti’ was offered to her for meticulously managing the traffic during the games, she refused to take the award and asked the authorities to dedicate the award to the entire police unit (Traffic).

• In 1983, Kiran Bedi was transferred to Goa for three years; according to sources, some senior officers including Indira Gandhi’s aides R. K. Dhawan and Yashpal Kapoor played a role in her transfer.

• While in Goa, Bedi’s then 7-year-old daughter was seriously ill; who had been suffering from the Nephritic Syndrome since the age of three, Bedi took privilege leave for the first time in her decade-long career to look after her daughter who was undergoing treatment at the AIIMS in Delhi.

• In 1986, while serving as  DCP of Delhi’s North District, she started several detox centres to address the problem of drug addiction, and after her transfer to a new post, she, along with other 15 police officers, institutionalized those centres as ‘Navjyoti Police Foundation for Correction, De-addiction and Rehabilitation,’ a foundation working against the drug-addiction.
  

  Kiran Bedi Navjyoti Police Foundation

• In 1990, after the Wadhwa Commission censured Kiran Bedi, she was transferred to Mizoram as the Deputy Inspector General (Range).
  

  Kiran Bedi In Mizoram

• While in Mizoram, Bedi finished a major part of her PhD and also started penning-down her autobiography.

• In 1993, she was appointed as the Inspector General (IG) to the Delhi Prisons. While working as the Inspector General of Tihar Jail, she brought several reforms like introducing Vipassana and Yoga sessions in the prison, vocational training for prisoners, and many more. For these improvements, she has received the honours like Ramon Magsaysay Award and the Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship.
  

  Kiran Bedi Doing Yoga Along With Tihar Inmates

• United Nations has given the “Serge Soitiroff Memorial Award” to her Vision Foundation, which was established with the purpose of Police and Prison reforms in 1994.

• Along with Arvind Kejriwal and Anna Hazare, she was one of the founder members of IAC (India Against Corruption).
  

  Kiran Bedi With Anna Hazare And Arvind Kejriwal

• She is counted among those police officers who have taken a very few leaves/holidays during their tenure.

• In 2015, she entered the politics after joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
  

  Kiran Bedi With Narendra Modi

• She has also hosted a famous TV series ‘Aap Ki Kacheri’ on Star Plus channel.
  

  Kiran Bedi Hosting A Television Show