Barely a few days into her stint as the district police chief of Jammu’s Ramban district, SSP Anna Lata Sinha was confronted with a unique problem, which, perhaps her intensive IPS training too would not have prepared her for.

An Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) in the district had been suffering from a major alcohol addiction. Not just his senior officials but also local residents had complained against him.

The Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) decided to look into the matter herself, and, with a medical officer by her side, conducted a surprise check on the ASI when he was on duty.

With the allegations confirmed, she decided on a punishment for the ASI: A mandatory one-month de-addiction course at a government-run hospital in the district.

“I looked at his file and found there were similar complaints about him earlier as well,” Sinha, a 2022-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer from the AGMUT cadre, told The Indian Express.

“We got him tested (medically) also on the spot.…