Mumbai : For top cop of Mumbai, Rakesh Maria, every minute counts these days as he has been trying to unravel what can be termed as the most complex investigation in his career. A murder mystery spread across five states, Assam, Delhi, Meghalaya, Mumbai and West Bengal needs to be solved before he steps out from his Crawford Market office on September 30 to take a new assignment.
On Monday, since two of the three prime accused, Shyamvar Rai and Indrani Mukerjea have been sent to judicial custody, questions are now being raised on efficiency of the probe agency to complete the complex investigation within a stipulated deadline. The core probe team under leadership of Maria and his Man Friday, Dinesh Kadam has been burning mid-night oil since last 14 days and miles to go before they actually go to sleep.
“Joining the dots henceforth is going to be the biggest challenge for us considering both Indrani and her former driver have been sent to judicial custody. And we still need to get into the complex dynamics of the probe in Kolkata, Delhi and Assam. Time is precious and we are optimistic to get done things sooner than you can speculate,” said an officer, requesting anonymity.
But is it that easy? Questions a senior retired police officer, “Probe in Kolkata is going to be a tough task understanding it is not only dependent on procuring some bank statements, documents related to financial transactions etc. The men handling the investigation will have to get few more men in who are directly or indirectly involved in this. They had got hold of Sujit Sarkar from Kolkata but nothing much could be found, such trial and error method takes time, especially when the accused are highly educated and privy to legal knowledge.”
Julio Ribeiro, former Commissioner of Mumbai Police and Director General of Police in Punjab, blames the electronic media for ‘initial hiccup’. “They started behaving as if they are the judiciary. Some of them started bringing in suspects or even accused in their studios and grilled them as if they were going through police investigations even before the cops could question them, this is bizarre and can cause damage to probe of such a meticulously planned crime,” Ribeiro told Free Press Journal on Monday.
Praising the efforts taken by Maria and his team, the former top cop said, “He has been doing a good job and best part of him was the idea to come out and brief the journalists himself. Wonder why he has stopped it which raised the height of speculations among certain media.”
“I do not think Maria did not assume the intricacies involved when he got himself involved in it and got Dinesh Kadam from ATS and also DySP Sanjay Kadam to handle it. May be he did not realise after initial probe of the driver that the crime was conceptualised across several locations which now has been a matter of headache for the probe agency,” said a source in Kolkata. Maria is due to be promoted on October 1 as a DGP and he will have to relinquish charges as Commissioner of Police, Mumbai. Will there be a leadership vacuum. Ribeiro feels otherwise. “Dinesh is a very efficient officer and whatever said and done, he has been handling it himself. He is sharp and very intelligent when it comes to handling such acute cases. So Maria’s departure from this case won’t affect future of this case or possible conviction of the accused, whosoever,” Ribeiro said.
It also has been learnt that Shyamvar Rai was being watched by the cops since May this year and he was kept under strict surveillance by Mumbai Police. Later, he was arrested on charges of possessing an illegal fire-arm which had given the cops enough breathing time to grill him in their custody and know the real story behind the crime.
“They are well-prepared and so I believe they will handle it good. Only thing, media should not hang anyone before the person is pronounced guilty by a designated court of the country. Everyone has a right to defend himself/herself,” added Ribeiro.
Twenty-odd days from the time of writing this report, Maria and his team will have to unravel the mystery and keep it ready to place before the court to ensure they were right and the accused persons are prosecuted. A tough task indeed!
