3 top cops cross over to new challenges

Each officer declined to speak on his role,old or new.

Maria met officers and teams of the ATS’s zonal and city units. For Maria,a “policeman of networks and informers”,the immediate challenges are to investigate the Pune blast,tackle the Indian Mujahideen (IM) and find the bomb planters behind the 2008 Malegaon blast.

For the new Crime Branch chief,the challenge will be to ensure a regular flow of information on the underworld. Roy will also handle unsolved cases involving gangland shootings,an airport heist,and the murder of 55-year-old Lalita Pinge.

For Seth,now in charge of all city police stations,the prime challenge is tackling political violence; the MNS and the Shiv Sena kept his predecessors busy. He will have to take stock of recent unsolved cases such as the alleged rape of a 12-year-old girl at Saki Naka by nine men and the murder of a BARC scientist,besides probing the recent stampede for police jobs.