Bihar Diaries
Bihar Diaries narrates the thrilling account of how Amit Lodha arrested Samant Pratap, one of Bihar’s most feared ganglords, notorious for extortion, kidnapping and the massacre of scores of people. The book follows the adrenaline-fuelled chase that took place across three states during Amit’s tenure as superintendent of police of Shekhpura, a sleepy mofussil town in Bihar.
How does Amit navigate between his many professional challenges and conquer his demons? What does he do when the gangland comes after his family? Bihar Diaries captures vividly the battle of nerves between a dreaded outlaw and a young, urbane IPS officer.
Amit Lodha is an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer presently holding the rank of inspector general (IG) of police. Over the course of his career, he has been a part of a number of successful operations, including the arrest of gangsters and rescue of kidnap victims. He has been awarded the prestigious President’ s Police Medal for Meritorious Service, the Police Medal for Gallantry and the Internal Security Medal for his work. Amit enjoys playing tennis and squash, and is an ardent fan of Kishore Kumar. He regularly writes for the Times of India blog. He can be reached on Facebook and Twitter.
Dial D for Don
About the book
March 1993. Mumbai was rocked by a series of bomb blasts. Unknown to most, Dawood Ibrahim, the mastermind behind the terror attack, had made several calls to the CBI. The don was desperate to prove his ‘innocence’ by giving himself up, but with conditions.
October 1999. The world’s very first case of cricket match-fixing led to the banning of six top Indian cricketers, including the then team captain. It was only in 2013, after the then commissioner of police revived the case, that a charge sheet was filed in a court of law.
January 2002. Aftab Ansari-a notorious Dubai-based don responsible for kidnapping a shoe baron in 2001 with the help of Jihadi groups in Pakistan-was arrested just as he was about to escape Dubai on a forged passport to Pakistan.
All these cases of life-threatening moments and unbelievable relief, involved the sharp investigative skills of an Indian Police Service officer then serving in the CBI. In his thirty-seven years of service, Neeraj Kumar neutralized several terror modules and decimated insidious organized crime syndicates spanning continents, working closely with Interpol, FBI, Scotland Yard and several national and international agencies. Much decorated and feted, he hung up his boots in 2013, after his last calling as Delhi’s police commissioner. He has now decided that the inside details of what have been some of the most fascinating crime stories of our times must not go unheard and untold.
The book covers several high-profile cases cracked by him in recent years, including the arrest and deportation of Aftab Ansari, the main accused in the shooting at the American Center in Kolkata, the nabbing of Jagtar Singh Tara, the man behind Punjab CM Beant Singh’s assassination, and the arrest of Romesh Sharma, a Dawood henchman masquerading as a politician based in Delhi.
Khaki Files
December 13, 2001: Pak-based terrorists carry out an audacious attack on the Indian Parliament killing eight security personnel and a gardener; all five terrorists are killed in their gun-battle with policemen deployed at the citadel of Indian democracy; the case is solved and all accused arrested within 72 hours.
December 16, 2012: a 23-year-old physiotherapist is brutally gang raped in a moving bus in Delhi; the case is cracked within five days despite the lack of initial leads; a head constable loses his life in the line of duty during riots that follow the dastardly crime.
In Khaki Files, Neeraj Kumar, a former Delhi Police Commissioner revisits many such high profile police cases of his career —from investigation of one of the biggest lottery frauds in the country to foiled ISI attempt to kill Tarun Tejpal and Anirudh Behal of Tehalka—bringing to light numerous achievements of the country’s police force, otherwise largely reviled and ridiculed
Neeraj Kumar is the former Commissioner of Police, Delhi, and the author of Dial D for Don: Inside Stories of CBI Missions.
Neeraj Kumar is the former Commissioner of Police, Delhi, and the author of Dial D for Don: Inside Stories of CBI Missions.
Life In The Uniform
About The Book
Amit Lodha is a decorated IPS officer holding the rank of inspector general. But before he rose the ranks in the service, he was an IIT graduate who was struggling to find his true purpose. In this book, Lodha tells us how he turned his life around and studied for the UPSC exams. He also tells us how he trained to be an officer and had the most memorable beginning to his career, in Bihar.
Punctuated with his signature humour and adventure-packed stories on everything from solving a kidnapping to handling a mob, Life in the Uniform gives us a chance to experience an IPS officer’s life through his own eyes.
Me against The Mumbai Underworld
On some days, you are no less than Sherlock Holmes. But on others, you are just a regular policeman on bundobast duty.
Me against the Mumbai Underworld is the story of Isaque Bagwan, three-time recipient of the President’s Police Medal for Gallantry and a small-town boy who pursued his big-city dreams and ambitions as an upright police officer. Bagwan, who is credited with carrying out the first encounter in the history of Mumbai Police, was witness to several of the city’s defining moments-the 1980s when smuggling was at an all- time high, the blasts that tore through Bombay in the ’90s, the gang wars that marked the city, and the devastating 26/11 terror attack. His life, which has captured the imagination of many writers and filmmakers, is presented here with all its gut-wrenching details.
Isaque Ibrahim Bagwan retired as an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) in May 2009 after serving in Mumbai Police for over thirty-five years. He was awarded the prestigious President’s Police Medal for Gallantry thrice. As per Mumbai Police records, he is the first officer from the force to have killed a criminal in an encounter. He is also the first police officer to shoot at and apprehend a criminal during proceedings in a sessions court in Mumbai.
Bagwan was also praised for his quick thinking and valour, which saved hundreds of lives, by the Pradhan Committee Report that looked into the 26/11 terror attack. He had taken charge of Nariman House during the deadly attack and restricted the terrorists’ movements for over sixteen hours with just twelve men. He also assisted in ensuring the safety of people in the buildings around Nariman House until NSG commandos arrived.
The Class of 83
About the book
At a time when Mumbai was plagued by underworld gangsters like Dawood Ibrahim, Iqbal Kaskar and Chhota Rajan, the batch of 1983 from the Police Training School (PTC) in Nashik-trained by the legendary Arvind Inamdar-produced a group of prominent encounter specialists who have been credited with bringing back the rule of law in the city.
Famed even within this batch, trigger-happy senior police inspector Pradeep Sharma understood that to save the city from the clutches of the underworld, he would need to dilute rival gangs. The Class of 83 delves deep into the most famous (or infamous) encounters conducted by Sharma and his batch mates. Pradeep Sharma was arrested by the same department he had served for two-and-a-half decades. He faced the ignominy of jail, clubbed in the same cell as the criminals he had arrested. However, he fought for his honour, was acquitted and reinstated into service.
In The Class of 83, S. Hussain Zaidi presents a one-of-a-kind story of a policeman’s triumphs, struggles and redemption.