Last week, author and columnist Shobhaa De made a joke on her Twitter feed. “Heavy police bandobast in Mumbai today!” she wrote, with a picture of an obese policeman. This led to an online furore, in the course of which the Mumbai police said that the cop did not work for them. It turned out that the man’s name was Daulatram Jogewat, and he was a police inspector currently posted in Neemuch, Madhya Pradesh.
Mr. Jogewat was pursued by the media for his reaction and said he was overweight because of a medical condition. “No one wants to be fat,” he told TV channels. “Everyone wants to be slim but it is due to my medical condition that I am putting on weight.” He suggested that Ms De could fund his treatment. Soon, Indore-based Aurobindo Hospital offered to treat him for free, as did VLCC Healthcare, a slimming clinic.
But Dr. Muffazal Lakdawala, well-known Mumbai bariatric surgeon, stole a march on them: he had had Mr. Jogewat whisked away to Mumbai to conduct a medical examination on him and then decide on the course of his treatment. \
Neemuch superintendent of police, Manoj Kumar Singh, told The Hindu on Sunday that Mr Jogewat was already in Mumbai. He said that a Floyd D’souza a manager from Dr Lakdawala’s Center for Obesity and Digestive Surgery came to Neemuch and took Mr. Jogewat and his family to Mumbai by road.
Mr. Singh said, “Mr. D’souza came and met me and Mr. Jogewat. He said that he was from the team of a well-known doctor in Mumbai and connected me on the phone with him. Dr Lakdawala told us about his latest case, a 500-kg woman who was airlifted from Egypt and brought to Mumbai by him.” He said Mr. Jogewat had taken leave for four days for the medical examination and would back on duty after that. Dr Lakdawala was unavailable for comment.
Mr. Jogewat, who joined the police force in 1979, is 57 and due for retirement in 2020. An athlete and an avid volley ball and football player when he was younger, he says a gall bladder operation in 1993 led to an insulin imbalance in his body and he had begun gaining weight since then, and currently weighs around 180 kg.
Mr. Singh praised his work as a police officer, saying, “He has been rewarded more than 200 times by his seniors for good work. We work in an active narcotic belt and Mr. Jogewat has been very good with detections and seizures. His investigations have been cited in court by judges. He drives a four wheeler and also rides a two wheeler. He can be on duty for over 12 hours on foot. His work has never taken a back seat.”
