The police officer who reinstated Sachin Waze performed a cowardly duty: Says former Delhi Police Commissioner T R Kakkar
Former Delhi Police Commissioner T R Kakkar (1964 Batch AGMUT cadre IPS) is known for being outspoken. He was the first former Delhi Police Commissioner who hit at the then Delhi Police chief A K Patnaik for his 'inapt' handing of East Delhi communal riots during US President Donald Trump’s visit in February last year. He surprised many in the police circle when he said “The image of the police has taken a beating in the eyes of the world, as all bad things happened in the capital when the US President was on a state visit”.
Kakkar had
taken over as Delhi Police Commissioner (April 1997) when the moral of Delhi
Police was at its lowest due to Connaught Place shoot out in which an innocent
businessman was killed by a Delhi Police Crime Branch team. He not only build
up confidence of the demoralized Police force, but also brought back glory of the
Force. His team solved the 1997 mysterious serial Delhi blasts, which even
central Intelligence agencies and CBI were unable to crack. The hi-tech cyber
investigation technique that was adopted by Delhi Police was later adopted by
US intelligence agencies in solving 9/11 US attack and later in tracing Osama
Bin Laden. In fact, He is probably the only Delhi Police Commissioner, who as
an army officer fought Indo-Pak war before joining Indian Police Services. He
also headed country’s premier security agency--National Security Guard (NSG). After
leaving Delhi Police, he joined the Union Home Ministry as Special Secretary
(Internal Security), Government of India. T R Kakkar spoke to Vijay Thakur,
Special Representative, The Statesman, on the recent exposure of
Police-politicians nexus in Mumbai. Excerpts:
Question:
The
Police-politician nexus in states is an open secret. In states, normally there
is a tacit-understanding between the police officials and local state leaders.
However the recent exposure and allegations made by a former Mumbai Police
Commissioner Param Bir Singh is very disturbing. What is your take on this ?
Answer:
It is a
fact that a sort of nexus has developed between police and local politicians.
It started taking a serious turn nearly a decade ago. Normally politicians have to get lot of
things done by police to carry on with their business of politics or to stay in
politics. They use police to stay in politics. It is obvious that the police
officers, who were used by politicians, got some favours in return. In other
words, police officers who did some illegal or dirty jobs for politicians
become emboldened and started indulging in all sort of corruption due to their
political patronage. They took politicians for granted.
Over
the period of time, politicians also started misusing police to extort money through
various kind of loot and illegal activities. Here, I must say all police
officers are not like that. However, a majority of the police officers posted
in prime positions became a party to such illegal and unauthorized loot.
Mumbai,
being a financial capital has more opportunities to extort from Bollywood,
hotels, dance bars, smugglers and from those who are indulging in other nefarious
activities.
Question:
But is
it not strange that a former Police Commissioner labeling allegations against a
Home Minister?
Answer:
It is
really unheard of that an officer of a disciplined force accuse state Home
Minister. I will not go into the marit of the case as NIA is investigating it
and must be probing all aspects. Now lets pray that the Mumbai High Court
orders a CBI inquiry into the allegations made by the former Police
Commissioner.
Question:
The
former commissioner also claimed that Assistant Inspector Sachin Waze was
taking instructions directly from the Home Minister. Will it not demolish the
existing protocol and policing system?
In a
police force there is a strict hierarchy. An inspector level officer reports to
Assistant Commissioner or at the most Deputy Commissioner rank officer. A Police
Commissioner is too big for him. In fact, an inspector hardly gets a chance to
interact with a Police Commissioner during his entire service. An inspector
interacting with state Home Minister is unheard of. This is really strange and
reveals how deep politicians have penetrated into police system to meet their
personal desires. Waze must have been in touch with the Home Minister with or
without the knowledge of Police commissioner to do all sort of dirty jobs—from
collecting and extorting money to his political masters. I will not go into
detail.
Question:
Going
by the previous service record of Waze, you think he deserve such a sensitive
posting in Police Headquarters ?
Answer:
This is
surprising and very serious. How come a person, who had serious cases pending
against him and, was suspended for around 16 years, suddenly got reinstated on
some flimsy ground of staff shortage? Further within days of his reinstatement,
he got the most sensitive posting. What the top brass of Mumbai Police was
doing?
I have
no hesitation in saying that the police officer who reinstated Sachin Waze
performed a cowardly duty. He did disservice to police and to the state. If for
a while, I presume that Police was under political pressure to reinstate Waze,
Police Commissioner could have transferred him to some non-sensative posting
Question:
Former
Mumbai Police Commissioner claimed he was not aware of the situation and came
to know about it later.
Answer
It is a
joke. As I said he does not deserve to be on the chair. If he was ignorant
about it than he was incompetent or otherwise he was party to the crime. Only a
fool will believe that an officer of Commissioner stature could be so dumbo. A
Police Commissioner gets regular information about the conduct of his
subordinate officers through an inbuilt mechanism within in the system.
And
still if Police Commissioner claims he did not know what is happening than he
was not worth his salt. I would avoid to use any strong adjective against the
then Mumbai Police Commissioner (Param Bir Singh), but he certainly does not
deserve to hold Commissioner’s chair.
If my
subordinate is regularly interacting with the Home Minister, I would have taken
strict disciplinary actions against him and would have dismissed him from
services under section 311 (2) (b). I have used this provision several times
against my subordinate whom I found unfit to be in a force.
Question:
All
these allegations has given a very bad name to the force. How can we prevent
such incidents in future?
Answer:
There
will always a black ship in every system. To prevent future repetition, the
solution is simple, follow the SC guidelines in transfer and posting. The
Supreme Court has issued guidelines on transfer and posting of senior rank
police officers. The guideline says there should be a committee to appoint
senior rank police officers from a panel of three incumbent. If it is followed in letter and spirit, we
might not see officers like Param Bir Singh and Sachin Waze getting sensitive
postings.
The
present nexus might not have come to limelight had NIA not taken up the Antilia
bomb scare case. It was only after the NIA started investigation in the case
that they traced and arrested Waze. But NIA mandate is to look into terror
angle. In case CBI takes up probe to investigate the allegations of former
Police Commissioner, we will hear more shocking and interesting tales of Mumbai
Police.
Ends.