In what can be termed as a historic day, Karnataka has appointed its first woman police head of state, on Tuesday.

The 57-year-old Neelamani N Raju will take charge from her predecessor Rupak Kumar Dutta who retired on Tuesday, after serving a short stint of nine months.

She is the first woman to be appointed as Director General and Inspector General of Police (DG&IGP) of Karnataka state.

Neelamani Raju, a 1983 batch Karnataka cadre IPS officer, is senior most among the three DGP rank officers, who had vied for the top post. She has served most of her tenure in central intelligence agencies. She has a tenure of two years and three months left in her service.

Recently, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy had convened a meeting to decide on the next DGP. There were two officers names -Kishore Chandra HC, M N Reddi who were in the fray.

Earlier in the day, a farewell programme was organised by state police department for R K Dutta.