Cop-criminal nexus

Media reports quoting a book written by former Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria has given enough indication – if no proof – that there exists in this country a close relationship – if not nexus – between criminals and senior police officers. The 63-year-old high-profile IPS officer – who had earlier successfully handled the Mumbai serial blasts of March 1993 and the Mumbai terror strikes of 26/11— had personally investigated the Sheena Bora murder case, but half-way through the probe he was transferred by an SMS message that came from then Maharashtra Additional Chief Secretary (Home) KP Bakshi. More significantly, while Commissioner Maria was interrogating Peter Mukerjea in the Khar Police Station on the issue of disappearance of Sheena Bora, Mukherjea reportedly informed him that he had told Deven Bharti - the then Joint Commissioner of Mumbai Police about it, a piece of information that had left the entire investigating team stunned. Even before Maria could ask Bharti about it, an SMS that came from the ‘top’ the very next morning shunted Maria out. This is a clear-cut case of a nexus not only involving senior police officers belonging to the IPS but also drags into it a senior IAS officer holding the post of Additional Chief Secretary in the state government. Going by the content of the book titled “Let me say it now”, Maria has also given clear indications about then Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis showing an extra interest in the Sheena Bora murder case. This is however not the first time in India that someone is pointing at a nexus of criminals, police officers and politicians. There have been numerous examples of such nexuses, and Assam is no exception. There was this not so old incident of a very senior former police officer of the state taking his own life after his name was dragged into a financial scam. Yet another former Assam Police chief’s name was entangled in a case of land-grabbing. Reports of the Assam Police Accountability Commission are replete with clear mention of the involvement of police officers in cases of land-grabbing in the heart of Guwahati. The Vohra Committee report of 1993 had clearly referred to a document prepared by the CBI in 1986 on the criminal nexus between the Mumbai underworld and the Mumbai Police. The report had also mentioned in as many words, on how Iqbal Mirchi, one of Mumbai’s most dreaded gangster of the 1990s, started his underworld journey as a petty cigarette vendor and ended up owning huge real estate that was worth crores of rupees, all thanks to patronage of a section of Mumbai Police officers.