Forty eight hours after 1993 serial explosions rocked Mumbai, Mumbai police had launched a massive search for the perpetrators of the bombings. The preliminary probe had shown that most of the bombs were planted in four-wheelers. That was when Dr. Jaychand Mandot’s doctor’s eye for details came in handy for the police.
On the morning of March 15, Dr Mandot, who runs a skin speciality clinic on the ground floor of Madhav Baug in Dadar, had just opened his small clinic when he spotted liquid leaking from the dikky of a light blue Bajaj Chetak scooter parked in from of his clinic. Dr. Mandot recalled that some stranger had parked the scooter since Friday when the city witnessed the explosions. Dr Mandot promptly dialled the police.
A tense six-hour stand-off followed as bomb disposal squad of the police and sniffer dogs tried to detect and dismantle a suspected bomb in the scooter. Mumbai police commissioner Rakesh Maria, then a young Deputy Commissioner, and senior officer YC Pawar supervised the operation. Madhav Baug is a sprawling chawl located on Naigaum Cross Road, a stone’s throw away from Dadar railway station, one of the city’s busiest railway terminus.
ADVERTISEMENT
Investigations revealed later that the scooter was filled with 14 kgs of RDX, but the detonating mechanism of the bomb had failed. The bomb detection and disposal squad soon dismantled the bomb.
Dr Mandot’s alertness saved several hundred lives. “I request citizens to stay alert and to inform police immediately about any suspicious activity or things kept. In this way we can keep ourselves safe from terrorist activities.” Dr. Mandot said.
Asked about his views on the Yakub Memon’s execution, he said that he wasn’t following the news about Yakub Memon’s trial.
ADVERTISEMENT