Detection diary

Although the book contains interesting, less known or occasionally shocking revelations, the reader is likely to demand better returns for labouring through 614 pages of familiar phases

For the characters and plots it throws up, blurring the boundaries between fiction and non-fiction, the Mumbai crime world is almost a publishing genre in itself. So, when one of the city’s most decorated police officers writes a memoir, you’d think it would be worth a read. But the celebrity status ex-IPS officer Rakesh Maria enjoys also means that his career is well documented. That leaves his memoir struggling to justify a title such as Let Me Say It Now. 

Although the book contains interesting, less known or occasionally shocking revelations, the reader is likely to demand better returns for labouring through 614 pages of relatively dull or familiar phases. 
 

After an initial introduction of his early life and career, with anecdotes such as Meena Kumari giving him chocolate as a kid or triumphantly taking on a wrestler-criminal using his martial arts skills, the story moves to Mumbai or Bombay as it was known.

Mr Maria, who was all set to work in the traffic wing, found himself probing the 1993 Bombay blasts. There is no point repeating the well-documented sequence of events that led to his discovery of the Dawood Ibrahim gang’s involvement but those investigations earned him an early reputation that sustained him for the rest of his career. 

LET ME SAY IT NOW
 

Author: Rakesh Maria

Publisher: Westland

Pages: 614

Price: Rs 899
 

The detailed descriptions of some of the operations may be in charge-sheet lingo but they show that Mr Maria kept his ear close to the ground. The author was also skilful in reading the conditions, to use a cricketing term. Sanjay Dutt’s interrogation is one example: Mr Maria ensured that the actor didn’t meet anyone who could tutor him before the questioning and got him to reveal details vital to the case.  
 

His recollections reveal how Mumbai underworld was organised in every sense of the word: Whether it Dawood’s remote-controlled realm from Dubai or Arun Gawli’s almost corporate-style empire from Mumbai’s Dagdi Chawl, one that had a legal cell and even insurance plan for members felled by police bullets or those fired by rivals. 

As we enter the 2000-2010 decade, the underworld subsides and terror of a different kind makes an entry. In the chapters on 26/11 when he was tasked with managing the control room and interrogating the lone surviving terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab, Mr Maria often expresses his frustration at not being in the field to take on the terrorists. He also shares his deep distress at the allegations made against him by Vinita Kamte, the widow of his slain colleague Ashok Kamte, who died fighting the terrorists. 

The attempts by handlers to pass off Kasab as a Hindu “with a red string tied around his wrist” is hardly a revelation as some sections of the media have suggested; it was discussed in the past. In fact, a better clickbait headline from the book, albeit from an earlier chapter, would have been: “How Maria sought (filmmaker) Vidhoo Vinod Chopra’s ‘help’ to get a criminal cross the Indo-Nepal border”. 

Mr Maria was transferred from his post of Mumbai Police Commissioner abruptly while he was probing the high-profile murder of Sheena Bora in 2015. The murder had come to light three years after Bora’s mother Indrani Mukerjea, her ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna and driver Shaymwar Rai had killed the 20-something and disposed of her body. Mr Maria makes a sensational claim that the current Maharashtra Anti-terrorism squad chief Deven Bharti, then Joint Commissioner (Law and Order) of Mumbai police, knew about Bora’s disappearance but had not informed him or taken any action. 

Mr Bharti has rubbished this accusation but Mr Maria’s claim is problematic for other reasons. He attributes the information to the disclosure of Peter Mukherjee, who himself is an accused. Secondly, it is hard to believe Mr Maria never had an opportunity to confront Mr Bharti in person. He conveniently blames it on his “sudden” transfer order issued the following day. Since this book was written much later, should Mr Maria not have cleared the air with a colleague first, equations notwithstanding? To prove that there was nothing wrong with the way he handled the investigations, he liberally quotes media reports that claimed or insinuated that Mr Bharti and Mr Maria’s  successor Ahmed Javed knew or socialised with the Mukerjeas.

Mr Maria displays his sensitive side in acknowledging the systemic shortcomings of Indian policing. He writes, for instance, about Jonathan Prasad, father of young IT professional Eshter Anhuya who was raped and murdered in the city. Mr Maria recounts how the father had to explain to the city cops that his daughter was not the “type” to elope nor “responsible” for what had happened to her to get a missing complaint registered.  In another incident, two constables travel to Delhi for an operation without getting the opportunity to draw enough money. After covering the tour expenses, they were down to their last Rs 13 with which the famished duo bought a chocolate bar and shared it, their only meal on that trip. Trust a seasoned cop to present both ends of the spectrum well.