Bombayman's Diary

Mumbai Police is one of the most disciplined, professional and formidable internal security organisations in the world. There was a time when its pace of detecting crimes was compared with the Metropolitan Police of London. However, there have been a few dark pages in its glorious history. One such chapter is of the police rebellion that happened forty-one years ago. What happened on 19 August 1982 was narrated to me by Baban Jadhav. He is one of those numbered policemen who participated in the rebellion and are still alive. Jadhav became my friend in 2003 when I was covering a proceeding at the Kurla court where few members of Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) were being produced after the organisation was banned. Jadhav was the in-charge of the security of the court premises. Recently, I met him after many years at his residence in Thane. “They put me in jail on the occasion of the Ganpati festival. Even if I was guilty, why my family members were thrown out of our govern...

  This week's Bombayphile couldn't be published on Sunday, as I had gone to my native village in Barabanki of Uttar Pradesh to attend my grandfather's funeral. While returning back, I met Mr, Rajesh Pandey at Lucknow. Mr.Pandey is a retired IPS officer and a founding member of the famed Special Task Force (STF) of the UP Police. Since the time Yogi Adityanath became the CM of UP, the STF has been often in the news for killing history-sheeters in the alleged encounters. Mr. Pande, after his retirement, is successfully running a YouTube channel where he tells stories of crime. Recently, he became an author as well by publishing his first book "Operation Bajooka". The book is based on his hunt for Sriprakash Shukla, who had become UP's most dreaded gangster in the 90s and even conspired to murder then CM Kalyan Singh. An hour-long conversation with him at his residence surprised me. Although Mr.Pandey had never served in the Maharashtra Police, he had an in-dep...

Underworld Don Dawood Ibrahim might be sitting miles away from Mumbai in Karachi, but his name often reverberates in the politics of Mumbai. And this has been happening for the last three decades. Several politicians have faced allegations of being linked with India’s most wanted fugitive. The latest on the list is Nawab Malik, who recently secured bail from the Supreme Court. Nawab Malik was a minister in CM Uddhav Thackeray’s cabinet. The Enforcement Directorate arrested him on 23 February 2022 in a money laundering case linked to Dawood Ibrahim. Malik was also a spokesman for the NCP and fiercely targeted the BJP. When the NCB arrested actor Shahrukh Khan's son Aryan, Malik strongly criticized the agency, claiming that the case was fabricated and that Aryan was arrested to extort money from his father. After Malik's arrest, the NCP alleged that it was the BJP’s move to silence him. Nawab Malik’s political boss Sharad Pawar too had faced allegations of being hand in glove wit...