The Other Side Of Policing

Foreword by Mr. Ved Marwah (former Commissioner of Delhi Police)
Preface
Acronyms & Abbreviations
Glossary, Meanings & Explanations

Gorby’s new card became the subject of editorials when Mr Mikhail Gorbachev, the card-holding communist became a card carrying capitalist. That was when he made it into the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) with an entry badge that not every one can hope to earn with ease. That reminds me of my own visit to those hallowed precincts on Wall Street just two summers ago, when this entry badge was slapped on to my lapel...

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Quila ka damad

Don’t ask me how a seedha sadha bhola-bala south Indian simpleton – that’s me, by the way! – who knew no Hindi nor Punjabi, nor the wiles of those that inhabited the lands north of the Vindhyas – a good knowledge of all of which, I was told, was a must for survival – land of all places in Phillaur? For those not familiar with this place name, Phillaur in Punjab is where lies Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s Qila or Fort on the banks of the River Sutlej, the tributary of that legendary River Indus from where our country derived its name. The Ranjit Singh Fort, has for over eleven decades now……

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Sarson da saga!

At the mention about there being more to Punjabi food than makki di roti and sarson da saag at the launch of a latest book enterprise on Punjabi cuisine, I couldn’t but help recall my own first encounter with this worthy delectable of Punjabi delectables that goes by the name of a gastronomic delight. Well, 34 years ago, landing at Phillaur in Punjab for my police training and my first experience of North Indian cuisine, there was much for me to learn…..

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Into what have I strayed..

The history of Police in a territory or any country for that matter is a story of the growth of civil power in the area. It is the story of its governance. It is the story of how Criminal Justice is administered in the territory. It is the story of the agency that enabled the ruler or the government to ensure peace and tranquillity in the area. For it is the stability and peaceful environment provided by this law and order-maintaining agency that enabled rulers and governments to ensure developmental works and progress; enabled trade and commerce to flourish….

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Early days

All too soon my field training in Delhi was over, only scanty memories of which do I recall now. Among them, mainly the not too palatable a realisation that I was not an exemplary trainee for anyone to emulate. I had reported to South Delhi for my training, where Mukund Kaushal had taken over as the SP South in place of Hukum Chand Jatav who had also summoned me earlier in between my Phillaur stint for a fortnight, for duty during the Parliamentary general elections held around March 1971. Under Kaushal of course there was a training schedule drawn up for me of police station and sub-divisional attachments, and stints in other units too. But as it turned out, for better or for worse, I literally remained…

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Ramus the Singhus

To aunt Tessa (God bless her departed soul) he was Ramus the Singhus. But then Tessa had her own names for everyone. She called me Maximillian, or sometimes just Koko. And she referred to my then boss as Shingle-Pingle. Luckily he never knew, for the twain had never met. But Ram Singh knew and he didn’t mind. Looking back, I think he rather liked the name that Tessa gave him…

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Busty the kraut

Loved ones often have accused me for my inability to shake off my office and the official trappings even in moments personal or private. Not without reason perhaps. No wonder I could never take a decent holiday, without my ‘policing’ interfering with it! This one’s about that holiday in 1974 – the first hoped outing since the time I was put in charge of sub-divisions in Delhi. The one that’s etched firmly on my mind for reasons more than one – not the least being, it was the time when Rohan pee'ed in IGP Goa Kaushal's office…

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Sojourn in Shangrila

Around the time the ‘emergency’ was declared in Delhi – maybe just a month earlier, the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Sikkim had become part of India. The world accused India of having annexed it, while India maintained stoically that it was the people of Sikkim consequent to a popular mandate in a referendum that willed it, and of their own volition joined the Indian Union. Much later, though, many told me that in actual fact what led to Sikkim’s merger was nothing but an offshoot of a battle for supremacy between two women – both white – one was…

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Yeti - The Abominable Snowman

Mystery always intrigues! So it is with the legend of Yeti. This elusive shaggy man-beast has been pursued, and claimed to have been sighted by countless Himalayan mountain climbers over the years. However, apart from some giant footprints in the snow and a few blurry photographs, most researchers cynically feel that mountaineers have brought back no tangible evidence of the supposed creature. Thus making it one of the world's most legendary unproven large…

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Lala the Sarpanch

With Ram Singh no more, we desperately needed a new orderly. Especially now that the home front had enlarged further, and after Indira there were two more additions – Prashanth and Sonal. With little children around, the guy who is to hanging around the house has to be just right. But our hunt for one would just not produce anything positive. No volunteer, no soul suggested or selected for our need by well-meaning Inspectors and other officers could fit the bill or satisfy us…

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The Daroga Raj…

I was introduced to the term ‘Daroga’ for the first time on that fateful night of 25th June 1975 – the time recorded in the annals of our Nation’s history as the night when Emergency was declared. As SDPO Parliament Street and supervising the nightlong swoop of arrests, a very young me in the wee hours of the morning had stepped also into the Dr Bishambar Das Marg residence of political heavy weight Raj Narain – remembered more for successfully petitioning the Allahabad High Court against Indira Gandhi in an election petition… and pictured always with the…

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Gadha Parade

The sure possibility of an enraged controversy erupting over the contents of what readers may find in this chapter does stare me in the face. Even so, I dare to include this quite dead and buried episode here, with an open mind, maybe just to prove how human we all are, and that just because we are in the police and wear khaki, are not devoid of the common failings even when expected to be the paragons of all virtue. I have had my moments of failings with severe doubts and reservations over the need or not for third degree, or for that matter measures…

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The incredible blast

South Delhi provided opportunities for some sensational and innovative policing – to show my mettle, as they say. The very same totally post-riots depressed officers of the dispensation previous to mine consequent to the bashing they received from the media, human rights activists and the Parliament too for their reported incompetence during the November riots, now rallied round to produce some phenomenal feats of policing with commendable results. We were able to …

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Police in perspective

In Indian mythology Lord Brahma is recognized as the creator. The story goes that he was so good at his job, that soon there was a population explosion. Resulting in not enough room on earth to accommodate the creatures that he had created. Naturally the victims conferred and then protested. They entreated the creator to show some mercy. Their prayer being genuine, Brahma then created ‘Mrityu’ to take care of the surplus, the excess baggage…

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Story of Khaki

July 2006: Khaki has ruled me since I joined school even before my fifth birthday. The students’ uniform at St Aloysius – the alma mater which shaped my formative years for the next twelve years, was a white shirt tucked inside khaki shorts. And then in the Boy Scouts even the shirt turned khaki, with a blue scarf round my neck and badges of green thrown in for some colour. Later when I joined the…

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On-going postmortem of '84 riots

There were reactions galore that erupted and exploded when the ATR (Action Taken Report) of the Government on the Nanavati Commission Report, was tabled in Parliament on the last day before the six-month period after submission expired. Many of these were violent and volatile, others giving rise to debates, discussions in the written and the visual media, and a rising of passions from all quarters – on a scale perhaps unexpected by the powers that be – that led to resignations of Jagdish…

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Lushai lashings in Mizoram!

Despite having returned from Sikkim only in 1980, and to Delhi Police in 1981 , the Home Ministry for reasons of its own wanted me out of Delhi again in 1983. But then Governor Jagmohan would have none other than me for DCP North after the incumbent Ramashrey Tewari – the inscrutable and unmatched-for-sheer-brilliance Brahmin, whom I considered was DP’s Chanakya, and whose number two in North District I then was – took off to the RPF in the Rail ministry. Even …

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Born with privileges!

When I was posted as the Assistant Inspector General of Police in Mizoram, I wore many an additional cap too. That of the SP CID (Crime), and I was also the Director Vigilance for the State reporting directly to the Chief Secretary. The vigilance job was of course a pain in the butt and very frustrating -- as most of the files with proven corruption cases never returned to me for further action. A majority of them were cases of embezzlement of government funds by local Mizo officers and officials posted in various departments. I was already at loggerheads with Laldenga the legendary rebel leader…

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Tokyo Experience

Our Government sent me to Japan in 1990 for a Traffic Administration Seminar. The occasion was an opportunity to interact with and to learn about a police force, which is considered to be one of the most successful in the world in crime control and traffic management as compared to other police forces. The success story of Japan in every field of life is too well known to be repeated here in any manner, but some of the salient features that as an outsider I had occasion to observe …

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None for the Road

Never a dull moment, for you, if you are a policeman. More so, if you happen to head the traffic unit of a city - and that too, a city, which is the nation's Capital! The well-known adage, that neither the policeman's friendship is something to be sought, nor his enmity to be incurred, just doesn't work. One merely has to get wind of your presence at a party, a social gathering or a late night dinner - and there you are! Without so much as a 'by your leave' you are dragged into a heated discussion when you try to explain to the 'know alls’ the reasons for the…

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India Gate Success Story

1992: This is of the time when The Times of India put me on the historic map of Delhi. Nearabouts a month had elapsed since April when I had closed down the Prince’s place – the inner circle of India Gate, and put the traffic approaching from all the radials approaching this major distributor Rotary onto the outer C-Hexagon around the monument. The new scheme envisaged a one-way system of traffic flow in a clockwise direction with a continuous free left turning movement for all…

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Of Bosses and Bosses

On joining government service, one of the first things I was told by a senior colleague was: "Neither your boss nor your subordinate is 'made-to-order'. In either case, they come 'ready-made…. rarely in sizes, shapes, or mental frames, suitable or fitting. So much so, it is up to you to inflate or deflate yourself adequately to make your own frame fit into their mould.”…

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Humour in police uniforms

Who said we policemen lack humour! Though believe me, our sense of so-called serious professionalism is ingrained so deep, that whether wantonly or not, we rarely can exhibit it. Humour, I mean. And when we do, that's only in private – may be two or three of us sharing an anecdote; never in public.

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Pedestal for Vijay Chowk

The Capitol complex of New Delhi consisting of the Rashtrapati Bhawan, Parliament House, the North and South Blocks and the various Bhawans housing major Union Ministries as also the National Archives and the National Museum on either side of the Central Vista which stretches from Vijay Chowk to the National stadium, is one of the finest examples of architecture in India. Designed and planned by Sir Edwin Lutyens, it expresses a grandeur and…

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Loyalty Personified

I recall the occasion when I believe a gallantry medal was within my grasp, but it never occurred to anyone to even think of me in the list of contenders. And for this, I blame Avtar -- that handsome six-footer Serd, whose fate has somehow been linked with mine for the last many years. Avtar was among the entourage handed down to me by my predecessor, when as a young officer I assumed charge of Parliament Street sub-division in Delhi. A turban-ed guy, so…

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Is it necessary to arest

“In which law is it said, that arrest is mandatory… ?” – was one of my posers to the august gathering of senior officers from the police and judiciary from all over the country, academics, NGOs, human rights activists, media personnel and lawyers. This was at a recently concluded two-day seminar on ‘Law of Arrest: police powers and accountability’ organized by the National Institute of Criminology and Forensic Science (NICFS) at the India International Centre last week. Reacting to divergent views expressed by some panellists and a…

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Delhi Commissionerate

The Delhi Police Commissionerate celebrated in 2003 the Silver Jubilee of its existence, a period of existence completed successfully and with aplomb. It was occasion to reflect on how over the past 25 years since its introduction on 1st July 1978 it has stood the test of time, having geared itself over these years to effectively shoulder the responsibility of combating the Herculean task of crime and law and order control, to make Delhi a safe place for its residents…

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Safety tips for women

Never in the history of the nation have we invited on ourselves shame and disgrace as in the case of the Swiss diplomat’s rape in 2003. The dastardly assault ending in an oral rape in a vehicle outside the Siri Fort Auditorium was a grim reminder of the unsafe conditions for women in the nation’s capital. The stupid manner in which the then police leadership investigated the case and conducted itself to literally play into the murky hands of a sensation-hungry immature media that totally negated the possibility ever of bringing the culprits…

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Bloodsucking Leeches

We policemen are at times referred to as leeches. Bloodsuckers, who do not often hesitate to grab the opportunity to suck, even from the poor, the victim and more often as alleged, surely from the one who has transgressed the law! Giving us a despicable image – of not upholding the law in support of the honest citizen, but being seen as supporting the law-breaker by our acts of omission and…

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Police hitmen

Every police department worth its salt needs its hit-men. So does Delhi Police, given its peculiar circumstance as a much sought after target for bomb-blasting terrorists from across the international border, from the so called aggrieved States and Communities of the country; and from plundering criminals from Delhi’s own bordering lands who find the riches of Delhi too much of a temptation to resist. That Delhi’s multi-ethnic and impersonal culture provides faceless anonymity and…

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Reminiscences of a cop

I came to Delhi when for the first time a ‘worthy’ from my home State of Karnataka had just landed the seat in Rashtrapati Bhawan through what they called a ‘conscience’ vote. Soon after the time, when the occupants of the nation’s supreme law making body newly learnt how by the power of a mere show of their hands not only a ‘wrong’ could changed to what they considered ‘right’…. but when needed, also that ‘white’ can be ‘black’ and vice versa…

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Senior Citzens - Old is Gold

Safety and security of the elderly, especially those living alone are a concern. Not only to themselves, to their families and to the community in general too. Due to various reasons older persons are at times constrained to live away from their families and loved ones, which makes them particularly vulnerable to safety and security hazards. Every year nearly two dozen senior citizens in Delhi become victims of murder. This is unfortunate.

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Summer holidays

A treat for Delhi’s youngsters was drawn up during the summer months of 2004. The Delhi Police made elaborate plans for enthusiastic young volunteers with time on their hands during their school summer vacation, to be involved in Community service programmes. What’s surprising ….the youngsters lapped it all up!

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A Faithful remembers

As millions around the world prayed for the most prominent religious leader in the world, my mind went back to February 1986 to the time when Karol Josef Wojtyla visited India for the first time. Of Polish origin and a survivor of the World War- II ravages, he had opted for priesthood and risen to become the Supreme Pontiff of Roman Catholics all over the world, the 261st successor to St Peter in Rome, who chose the name John Paul II when he was elected Pope in 1978 soon after his…

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Of Celebrity Icons

It was super-star Amitabh Bachchan who dominated my ‘morning-walk thoughts’ one day, the time when he lay on a hospital bed in Bombay. I was taking my routine mandatory constitutional, even as the first rays of the rising sun on the horizon were casting long shadows of me in the park as they struck the first day of December 2005! Possibly because his sudden ill-health due to suspected food-poisoning, and hospitalisation at Escorts Delhi and Leelawati Mumbai where he…

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Bidding Policing Adieu

It seems like yesterday! And yet it is nigh 35 years since North India beckoned me from the air-conditioned garden city of Bangalore, to become, of all things, a policeman in Delhi! Come this weekend, on the last day of October, I hang my brown ‘oxfords’ up on the wall, and put away my uniforms – never to be worn again, and permanently consign the ceremonial medal strip that decorates my chest to the showcase, hopefully for my yet to arrive grandchildren to admire and be proud of in course of time. Till then, the medal strip will have to keep company with…

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Kotwals and Kotwalis of Delhi

The famed institution of the Kotwal emerged in the 13th century, which is the first evidence of the origins of an organised policing system in Delhi. To Ganga Dhar Nehru, the grandfather of India's first Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru, appointed just before the 1857 sepoy mutiny, goes the distinction of being the last Kotwal, with whom it can be said the Kotwal system came to an end. This and other little known facts in its chequered history, lend the Delhi Police a rich…

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