KARAIKAL: Niharika Bhatt IPS took charge as Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) in Karaikal on Tuesday. She replaces Mahesh Kumar Barnwal who has been transferred to the police headquarters. What is interesting is the fact that her husband is the District Collector Arjun Sharma. The 31-year-old Biomedical Engineer turned IPS officer said, "I am looking forward to serving the people to the best of my abilities. My priority is to control the spread of COVID-19 across Karaikal."
Niharika Bhatt is one of the youngest to assume the top post in Karaikal. She hails from Lucknow and holds a B Tech in Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering, Uttar Pradesh Technical University, and MS in Biomedical Engineering from University of Michigan, USA. She worked as a research fellow in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States. Niharika Bhatt left an budding career in the FDA to return to India in 2014, and appeared for UPSC exams the same year. Niharika's earlier position was SSP (Traffic) in Puducherry.