The police officer who reinstated Sachin Waze performed a cowardly duty: Says former Delhi Police Commissioner T R Kakkar

 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.