The function for the presentation of the Deepak Jog Award for best detection in the Mumbai Police force on Thursday saw warm memories being exchanged, and an anecdote from retired supercop Julio Ribeiro about subverting implicit orders to do one’s job as a law-enforcer.
The award was given to Police Inspector Hemant Bhawdhankar and Police Sub Inspector Dhiraj Bhalerao from the JJ Marg police station for their detection of the abduction and murder of three-and-a-half-year-old Junera Khan in December last year. Police Constables Jameel Sayyed, Imran Mulla, Deepak Patil and Bharat Jadhav were also felicitated for their role in cracking the murder case.
Speaking at the award function, Kaustubh Jog, the son of the late Deputy Commissioner after whom the award is named (and grandson of the late S.S. Jog, a former Director General of Police), expressed his gratitude to Mumbai Police Commissioner D.D. Padsalgikar for reviving the award. He addressed Mr. Padsalgikar as Datta kaka (Datta uncle) and said that the evening felt like being with family. “I have attended every awards function since the inception in 1997. As kids, me and my sister used to love to come as we loved the sandwiches served after the function. As we grew up, we interacted with police officers who would attend the function and that gave us an idea of the work that our father and our grandfather did, as they did not speak much about their work.”
Mr Padsalgikar said that he Deepak Jog were DCPs together — he in Zone I when Mr. Jog was Zone II — and that was the beginning of a friendship that lasted until Mr. Jog’s premature demise. “My fondest memory of Deepak is when my son won an award at a school function and received it from Deepak’s hands, who was the chief guest that year.”
The award was given away by retired Director General of Police Julio Ribeiro, who had been a batchmate of S.S. Jog and had seen both Deepak and Kaustubh grow up.
He recalled an incident when he was DCP Zone III and S.S. Jog was DCP Special Branch I. “I was called to the office of the then Police Commissioner S.G. Pradhan, and Deepak’s father was also present. They had learned that the Shiv Sena was planning to attack George Fernandes at Shivaji Park, and that the political leadership was in approval of the move. Our orders from above were to do nothing, but Shivaji Park fell in my jurisdiction at the time and I knew that I would be held responsible.” After some deep thought, he upon an idea. “I made some changes to the deployment on the day that Mr. Fernandes was to arrive. Instead of having a cordon of policemen around the park, I placed large groups of policemen at several spots. No attack happened. The next day, the Commissioner called me, laughing, and said he knew fully well what I had done. I replied saying that I had done nothing.” With the audience already chuckling, he added, “I said, I had in fact left gaps in the bandobast for the attackers to enter.”
