A midnight safety check by Malkajgiri Police Commissioner B. Sumathi has put Hyderabad’s night-time policing under scrutiny after the senior IPS officer, dressed in plain clothes, stood alone at a Dilsukhnagar bus stop and was allegedly approached by nearly 40 men within three hours.The operation, conducted between 12.30am and 3.30am, was designed to assess what women face while waiting alone in public spaces after dark. Sumathi, who assumed charge as commissioner of the Malkajgiri Police Commissionerate on May 1, chose to test ground conditions without visible police protection, allowing patrol teams to observe from a distance and intervene when required.
Several men allegedly made unsolicited approaches, passed lewd remarks or attempted to engage her persistently. Some were suspected to be under the influence of alcohol or ganja. Police teams deployed nearby detained those accused of harassment and initiated action under relevant provisions. The episode has drawn attention because it came barely days after Sumathi became the first woman to head the Malkajgiri commissionerate.
Dilsukhnagar is one of Hyderabad’s busiest transit points, linking commuters from LB Nagar, Malakpet, Chaitanyapuri and surrounding neighbourhoods. The location remains active late into the night because of buses, private transport, food outlets and workers returning from shifts. The choice of the bus stop was significant because women travelling after work often depend on such public points where lighting, crowd behaviour, police visibility and transport frequency directly shape their sense of security.
Sumathi’s decision to conduct the check personally marks a shift from routine review meetings to field-based assessment. Soon after taking charge, she identified crimes against women and children, narcotics control, cybercrime, citizen security and traffic management as core priorities for the new commissionerate. Her midnight inspection has now converted those priorities into an operational test of street-level policing.
The findings also expose a recurring gap between formal safety mechanisms and lived experience. Telangana has had SHE Teams since 2014, with units tasked with handling stalking, harassment in public places, online abuse and distress complaints from women. These teams conduct decoy operations, counselling, arrests and awareness campaigns across Hyderabad and other commissionerates. Yet the Dilsukhnagar episode shows that harassment can surface quickly when offenders believe there is no immediate police presence.
Crime data has added to concerns. Telangana reported 24,495 cases of crimes against women in 2024, the highest number among southern states. Hyderabad recorded 3,255 such cases in the same year. Sexual harassment cases under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita placed the city among the higher-ranking metropolitan centres, while offences linked to public places and transport corridors remained a specific concern for urban policing.
Public safety experts argue that night-time harassment is often underreported because women fear social stigma, repeated questioning, retaliation or procedural delays. Many incidents do not reach police records unless victims file complaints or officers take suo motu action. Decoy operations can therefore reveal patterns that statistics alone may miss, especially in areas where groups of men gather near transport nodes, liquor outlets or poorly monitored stretches.
The operation has also raised questions over patrol response. If a senior officer could be approached repeatedly at a prominent bus stop for three hours, the same conditions could be far more intimidating for students, nurses, hospitality workers, domestic workers, gig workers and women returning from late shifts. Hyderabad’s expansion as a technology, services and logistics hub has increased night movement, making women’s safety a core urban governance issue rather than a narrow law-and-order concern.
Malkajgiri Commissionerate itself is part of the wider restructuring of policing in the Hyderabad metropolitan region. The reorganisation created new administrative boundaries, zones and leadership responsibilities across Hyderabad, Cyberabad, Malkajgiri and Future City commissionerates. That restructuring is meant to improve response time, accountability and area-specific policing as the city expands into a larger urban cluster.
Sumathi brings an intelligence and field operations background to the post. Before her Malkajgiri appointment, she held senior responsibilities in the Special Intelligence Bureau and was associated with counter-insurgency and internal security work. Her move into a public-facing commissionerate places her at the centre of urban policing challenges ranging from street harassment and narcotics to cyber-enabled crime and traffic pressure.