encounter specialists
September 3, 2008
ENCOUNTER COPS
From: MRITYUNJAY BOSE
Last Sunday when at the stroke of 1 am, when Pradeep Sharma heard the knock at the door of his flat, he had no idea what was coming. When he opened the door, he was shocked – he found that he has been dismissed from the Mumbai Police, which he served for more than 25 years. The reason – links with underworld.
Like Sharma – several of his trigger-happy colleagues and contemporaries are booked in some or the other cases or totally sidelines within the force barring a few. During their heydays, these "encounter specialists" together killed more than 700 criminals of different gangs - now-a-days, they just kill time.
They were the poster-boys of Mumbai Police and performed the role of "Dirty Harry", came to be eulogized as "encounter specialists" or "encounter cops" and earned sobriquets like "super cops" – but today if one rewinds to the period of late nineties and compare with the present – the larger-than-life cops are history. Also the rivalry among these group of elite officers and men had come to the fore.
The journey of these daredevil men from hall-of-fame to hall-of-shame has been interesting and in itself is a good Bollywood plot. But the fact remains – the tribe called "encounter specialists" is more or less extinct.
"During my career I have killed 112 criminals, this is the reward that I got," says Sharma, expressing his anguish over being summarily dismissed under Article 311 of the Constitution. In this case Sharma's own intelligence network failed as he never new what was coming – as a matter of fact the file on his dismissal moved from the desk of a dozen IPS officers before Mumbai police chief Hasan Gafoor finally moved it to Director General of Police A N Roy, who inked his dismissal from the force.
Cut to late nineties, these cops used to flaunt costliest cell phones, deadly Smith and Wessons or Colts besides SLRs, and bumped off several criminals and terrorists – in what is known as "encounters" – but later changed to "police operation" and again back as "encounters". Not only in Mumbai or India, international media has portrayed some of these officers. Sharma, who was in a way the king of encounter specialists, was featured in Time magazine.
Like Inspector Sharma – the entire band of encounter specialists with an exception to Vijay Salaskar and Vinayak Savade – others are booked, sacked or sidelined. So as was their early rise and the immediate downfall. Since 2004, the trouble for these officers and men started – when an accused in the Ghatkopar bomb blast, Khwaja Yunus escaped from police custody – later presumed dead in custody – and one after the other found themselves on the other side of law.
During this period, Sub-Inspector Daya Nayak, who was protégé of Sharma, fell out with him - and also emanated reports of rivalry among Sharma and Salaskar, who currently heads the Anti-Extortion Cell of the Crime Branch. In fact, Sharma, Salaskar and Praful Bhosale, who headed a Crime Branch are of the 1983 batch.
Bhosale, the specialist, was arrested in connection with the disappearance of Khwaja Yunus. One of Sharma's juniors Sachin Waze, who had good knowledge of detecting high-tech frauds, also found suspended and arrested in the same case, but later he resigned from police. Their colleague Arun Borude secured anticipatory bail and is currently out of Mumbai.
Inspector Aslam Momin too was sacked by the police for his links with the underworld. Ravindra Angre, another officer, but from Thane found himself involved in an extortion case and arrested. Daya Nayak himself was accused of having assets disproportionate to sources of income. There are reports that Nayak built a school in his native at Karnataka and a Bollywood superstar reportedly inaugurated that a few years ago.
The juniors of these middle-rung officers and their Man Fridays are now scattered – and often avoid media, though during their regime when they cracked the backbone of the underworld from Mumbai – they used to send SMS to journalists of their achievements. Some of the encounter specialists were also closed to Bollywood personalities.
The seniors too also suffered – deputy commissioner of police (detection) Pradip Sawant, who was later sent to the Special Branch, was arrested in the infamous fake stamp paper scandal masterminded by Abdul Karim Telgi. Former police chief R S Sharma, who had served as joint commissioner of police (crime) earlier, too was arrested in the same scandal. Both has been discharged by a Pune special court.
Most of them are decorated with President's Medal or Director General of Police's commendation. They had an excellent intelligence-gathering network and are known for solving complex of crimes in few hours time.
These men combined together has created a dent in all the gangs – be it of Dawood Ibrahim, his brother Anees Ibrahim and Chhota Shakeel on one side or people like Chhota Rajan, Amar Naik or Ashwin Naik or for that matter Arun Gawli. "Definitely they have played a role in crippling the underworld, but they assumed larger than life image and in fact started dictating to senior officers. The friction between them also affected the functioning, but time decides," a senior officer said wishing anonymity. "The snuffed out the bad guys and now they are being snuffed out," he said.
What is to be noted is that these encounter cops in the process of liquidating gangsters also came close to rival gangs – and the killing continued. Sometimes the encounters were also referred to as extra-judicial killings – and there are instances when there were strictures from courts and human rights commissions. "When the department needed them they were used, but now they are sidelined, as their requirement is not that much," a middle-level police officer said. "However, their fate is like that – early rise to fame, enjoying power, commanding strength, but an early fall," points out a senior officer, pointing out that these encounter specialists also started interfering in transfers of senior officials.
SOME FILMS ON GANGWARS AND ENCOUNTER COPS
Satya
Company
Vaastav
Shootout at Lokhandawala
Aan – Men at Work
Aab Tak Chhapan
Encounter: The Killing
Risk
Kagaar
ENCOUNTER COPS
From: MRITYUNJAY BOSE
Last Sunday when at the stroke of 1 am, when Pradeep Sharma heard the knock at the door of his flat, he had no idea what was coming. When he opened the door, he was shocked – he found that he has been dismissed from the Mumbai Police, which he served for more than 25 years. The reason – links with underworld.
Like Sharma – several of his trigger-happy colleagues and contemporaries are booked in some or the other cases or totally sidelines within the force barring a few. During their heydays, these "encounter specialists" together killed more than 700 criminals of different gangs - now-a-days, they just kill time.
They were the poster-boys of Mumbai Police and performed the role of "Dirty Harry", came to be eulogized as "encounter specialists" or "encounter cops" and earned sobriquets like "super cops" – but today if one rewinds to the period of late nineties and compare with the present – the larger-than-life cops are history. Also the rivalry among these group of elite officers and men had come to the fore.
The journey of these daredevil men from hall-of-fame to hall-of-shame has been interesting and in itself is a good Bollywood plot. But the fact remains – the tribe called "encounter specialists" is more or less extinct.
"During my career I have killed 112 criminals, this is the reward that I got," says Sharma, expressing his anguish over being summarily dismissed under Article 311 of the Constitution. In this case Sharma's own intelligence network failed as he never new what was coming – as a matter of fact the file on his dismissal moved from the desk of a dozen IPS officers before Mumbai police chief Hasan Gafoor finally moved it to Director General of Police A N Roy, who inked his dismissal from the force.
Cut to late nineties, these cops used to flaunt costliest cell phones, deadly Smith and Wessons or Colts besides SLRs, and bumped off several criminals and terrorists – in what is known as "encounters" – but later changed to "police operation" and again back as "encounters". Not only in Mumbai or India, international media has portrayed some of these officers. Sharma, who was in a way the king of encounter specialists, was featured in Time magazine.
Like Inspector Sharma – the entire band of encounter specialists with an exception to Vijay Salaskar and Vinayak Savade – others are booked, sacked or sidelined. So as was their early rise and the immediate downfall. Since 2004, the trouble for these officers and men started – when an accused in the Ghatkopar bomb blast, Khwaja Yunus escaped from police custody – later presumed dead in custody – and one after the other found themselves on the other side of law.
During this period, Sub-Inspector Daya Nayak, who was protégé of Sharma, fell out with him - and also emanated reports of rivalry among Sharma and Salaskar, who currently heads the Anti-Extortion Cell of the Crime Branch. In fact, Sharma, Salaskar and Praful Bhosale, who headed a Crime Branch are of the 1983 batch.
Bhosale, the specialist, was arrested in connection with the disappearance of Khwaja Yunus. One of Sharma's juniors Sachin Waze, who had good knowledge of detecting high-tech frauds, also found suspended and arrested in the same case, but later he resigned from police. Their colleague Arun Borude secured anticipatory bail and is currently out of Mumbai.
Inspector Aslam Momin too was sacked by the police for his links with the underworld. Ravindra Angre, another officer, but from Thane found himself involved in an extortion case and arrested. Daya Nayak himself was accused of having assets disproportionate to sources of income. There are reports that Nayak built a school in his native at Karnataka and a Bollywood superstar reportedly inaugurated that a few years ago.
The juniors of these middle-rung officers and their Man Fridays are now scattered – and often avoid media, though during their regime when they cracked the backbone of the underworld from Mumbai – they used to send SMS to journalists of their achievements. Some of the encounter specialists were also closed to Bollywood personalities.
The seniors too also suffered – deputy commissioner of police (detection) Pradip Sawant, who was later sent to the Special Branch, was arrested in the infamous fake stamp paper scandal masterminded by Abdul Karim Telgi. Former police chief R S Sharma, who had served as joint commissioner of police (crime) earlier, too was arrested in the same scandal. Both has been discharged by a Pune special court.
Most of them are decorated with President's Medal or Director General of Police's commendation. They had an excellent intelligence-gathering network and are known for solving complex of crimes in few hours time.
These men combined together has created a dent in all the gangs – be it of Dawood Ibrahim, his brother Anees Ibrahim and Chhota Shakeel on one side or people like Chhota Rajan, Amar Naik or Ashwin Naik or for that matter Arun Gawli. "Definitely they have played a role in crippling the underworld, but they assumed larger than life image and in fact started dictating to senior officers. The friction between them also affected the functioning, but time decides," a senior officer said wishing anonymity. "The snuffed out the bad guys and now they are being snuffed out," he said.
What is to be noted is that these encounter cops in the process of liquidating gangsters also came close to rival gangs – and the killing continued. Sometimes the encounters were also referred to as extra-judicial killings – and there are instances when there were strictures from courts and human rights commissions. "When the department needed them they were used, but now they are sidelined, as their requirement is not that much," a middle-level police officer said. "However, their fate is like that – early rise to fame, enjoying power, commanding strength, but an early fall," points out a senior officer, pointing out that these encounter specialists also started interfering in transfers of senior officials.
SOME FILMS ON GANGWARS AND ENCOUNTER COPS
Satya
Company
Vaastav
Shootout at Lokhandawala
Aan – Men at Work
Aab Tak Chhapan
Encounter: The Killing
Risk
Kagaar
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