Director General (Home Guards) Rakesh Maria, who retired after 36 years of service on Tuesday, said he had no regrets regarding the Sheena Bora murder case. The 1981 batch Indian Police Service officer said he did not bear ill will to the government regarding his transfer while the case was being investigated. He was speaking to journalists in his south Mumbai office.
Mr. Maria was Mumbai Police Commissioner when the case was cracked by the Khar police. He was then promoted to the rank of DG and transferred in the middle of the investigation to head the Home Guards.
He said, “Transfers and postings are the government’s prerogative. In fact, I had sought the transfer to this position a month before I was transferred. I requested the State government to post me either with the Home Guards or with the Maharashtra State Security Corporation as I was up for promotion. The only thing I feel bad about is that the team that worked on solving such an important case should have got the credit for it and not just us senior officers.” He said the Central Bureau of Investigation had done an “outstanding job” in the case.
On the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, for which he had faced flak for being in the control room and not on the field, Mr. Maria said, “I only have two regrets. One is the death of my colleagues. I wish they were here among us today. Secondly, the yardstick of measurement that night was either you were martyred or you were injured, and I was unfortunate not to fit into either category. I feel that yardstick was an unfair one.”
He said, “It was a unique night, a night I would not wish any police officer or agency. We all did our best. The main issue was to keep our men motivated throughout the night. As Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) I sent out a message to all my officers to go out on the field. The then Police Commissioner [the late Hassan Gafoor] asked me to go to the control room.”
Mr. Maria said he plans to write a book on crime detection, which will highlight the hard work of the department. “It is very easy to criticise the police, but there are officers toiling day and night to nip criminals and terrorists in the bud. The book will focus on 15 to 16 cases from 1983-1984 onwards.”
