Beela Venkateshan


Beela Venkatesan was an Indian Administrative Service officer serving as the Secretary of Commercial Taxes and Registration, known for her role in managing the COVID-19 pandemic in Tamil Nadu.
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Background

Beela Venkatesan was born in Thoothukudi District on 15 November 1969, and was later based in the Kottivakkam locality of Chennai. She was born in an influential family with her mother, Rani Venkatesan, being a senior Congress leader and a former MLA, and her father, L. N. Venkatesan, a retired Director general of police. Beela was an MBBS graduate from Madras Medical College and an IAS officer from the 1997 batch.
Her husband Rajesh Das IPS is accused of sexually harassing a woman Superintendent of Police in February. The incident allegedly happened when he and the woman officer were part of a security detail for the then Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami during an election campaign.
Beela died from a brain tumour on 24 September 2025, at the age of 56.

Career

In February 2019, Beela Venkatesan was appointed Health Secretary at the Department of Health and Family Welfare of State of Tamil Nadu. Prior to taking charge as the Health Secretary, she served as Commissioner, Indian Medicine and Homeopathy for the state. As a Health Secretary, Beela Venkatesan was instrumental in initiating Hospital Management Information System, under which patients data across Tamil Nadu would be digitised and stored in cloud for future reference and research purposes. She played vital role in minimising the number of Dengue cases reported in the state in 2019.