Rakesh Maria was seasoned enough police officer to know the problem of mixing up personal priorities with professional duties. A 1981 batch IPS officer, Maria was indiscreet on many counts. Maria’s evinced deep personal interest in the Sheena Bora murder case like we have not seen the boss of any other metropolitan police force do in any other part of the country in recent memory. His proximity to Peter Mukherjea and his family is well known in the media circles, especially Page 3 circles. But getting close to a case, in which he should have actually kept an arm’s length, was not his only indiscretion. He took personal involvement to another level. He personally interrogated the accused, a job that is left to the lowly IO (investigating officer). As if that was not enough, Maria, known for his penchant for media spotlight, briefed the media personally on a regular basis as if the Sheena Bora murder case was the end of crime in Mumbai. [caption id=“attachment_2426046” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Former Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria. PTI[/caption] He rightly earned the ire of political bosses who were certainly aware of Maria’s overzealous interest in the case. But it would be wrong to assume that the Sheena Bora murder case only sealed his fate. His name evoked frowns from political masters over his meeting with Lalit Modi in London. Though he was spared because the Lalit Modi case embroiled many top leaders, Maria was put on watch. The Sheena Bora murder proved a catalyst in his ouster. Perhaps Maria would have done better if he had exercised caution as better part of valour. He would surely have been aware of how CBI director Ranjit Sinha was put in the dog house by the courts and the government for mixing up the private and the official. Sinha was accused of giving private audience to certain accused in the garb of ‘setting a thief to catch a thief. The Supreme Court did not think much about Sinha explanation and said he had no business to be in touch with the accused without the knowledge of the investigating officer. So what caused Maria to take such keen, almost overzealous interest in the case? When was the last time that a police commissioner sat personally in a 12-hour interrogation of the prime accused? I remember a conversation I had with a former crime branch joint commissioner when the police arrested Bollywood producer Bharat Shah for his alleged links with the underworld. I asked this officer the following day (after Shah was in custody overnight) if he had met/interrogated Shah. He laughed In my face. “I will never give an accused the dignity of such a meeting. Nobody other than the investigating officer will even see him in lock up.” That’s how normal interrogations and investigations proceed. So what was so special about Sheena Bora case? Why was Maria so interested in it to take out so much time personally as if nothing else mattered which led to an open rebuke from the Chief Minister that while he appreciated the progress in this case, he would like that the police to gave such priority to all criminal cases? Why did Maria announce that he would file the chargesheet before september 30, the date he was supposed to be elevated to DG and moved out of Mumbai police HQ? What was the great hurry? Did he not trust his successor to do a good job? Or did he have some special interest? These and many more questions will haunt Maria in time to come.
Rakesh Maria was seasoned enough police officer to know the problem of mixing up personal priorities with professional duties. A 1981 batch IPS officer, Maria was indiscreet on many counts.
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