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Mumbai's Dirty Harrys join 7/11 probe
Published on Mon, Jul 24, 2006 at 12:44, Updated on Mon, Jul 24, 2006 at 16:24 in Nation section
Tags: Mumbai Blasts, Trains , Mumbai
Thirty-seven year-old police Inspector Vijay Salaskar, along with his then boss and deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Parambir Singh were instrumental in breaking the backbone of underworld don turned politician Arun Gawli's gang by eliminating most of his sharpshooters.
Salaskar came into public eye after he killed dreaded underworld don Amar Nayak in an encounter in central Mumbai in 1997.
An M.Com from Bombay University, Salaskar joined the force as a sub-inspector and rose to fame for killing Gawli's most ruthless sharpshooter, Bandya, who was allegedly the city's top extortionist.
After his fall from favour in 2005, Salaskar was given charge of the city's Anti-Robbery Squad but is now part of the elite group of sleuths probing the July 11 blasts.
Forty-four-year-old senior inspector, Predeep Sharma, with 107 'encounters' under his belt was the first Maharashtra police officer to have been featured on the cover of the Time magazine's international edition.
Sharma shot to fame after he killed two gangsters of the Dawood Ibrahim gang in 1990. He also shot dead three alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists involved in the Mulund train blasts at Goregaon in 2003.
Their individual investigation skills are exceptional and an asset for any probe team, says their former boss.
"They are excellent officers with exceptional intelligence gathering skills," said former Mumbai crime branch chief and now deputy inspector general of police (DIG) state reserve police force Parambir Singh.
"They are individually an asset to any investigation team," Singh told IANS.
And if highly placed sources in the ATS are to be believed, these former encounter experts with their well-oiled network of informants have become instrumental in piecing together vital nuggets of information in the blast probe.
"Some of these earlier boys who were in the crime branch have their own informants and network within the underbelly of city's underworld have given the much needed boost to the probe. We are drawing on their exceptional investigations skills," said a senior ATS official connected with the July 11 blast probe.
"Their experience and knowledge of the city's underworld and terror modules have come very handy for the investigations."
"These officers both former crime branch chaps and officer who were connected with the 1993 bombings prove are highly skilled as investigators and have become very handy for the case (probe). They have added teeth to the investigations as they know the methods employed by the underworld and have sound knowledge of counter-terrorism," the official said.
"With their expertise and experience, these officers are playing a vital role in the investigations," the officer said.
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