Losses,revamp,allegations: for police,effects of 26/11 lingered through 2009

Given a free hand by the government,the Mumbai Police started acquiring a huge arsenal of new weaponry,bulletproof vests and attack vehicles. It also started to raise crack teams of specially trained commandos as initial responders to any terror attack.

The Mumbai Police Crime Branch built a case against the attackers. With New Delhi keen to mount diplomatic pressure on Islamabad,a 69-page dossier of evidence gathered was prepared by the Crime Branch,screened at the Centre and then handed over to Pakistan on January 5.

A huge volume of material,forensic and technical evidence was laboriously collated by the police. On February 13,a three member Crime Branch team left for Washington,DC,interacted with the FBI and received crucial technical evidence.

The Crime Branch on February 25 filed a 11,280-page chargesheet against Ajmal Kasab,the lone 26/11 gunman captured alive,local facilitators Fahim Ansari and Sabahuddin Ahmed,and 35 wanted Pakistani perpetrators. The trial began in a special court inside Arthur Road prison on April 15.

In June,the police response was once again questioned once it became known that the Pradhan Committee report had indicted then Mumbai Police Commissioner Hasan Gafoor for not taking charge of the situation and not displaying visible leadership. As reported first in a series by The Indian Express,the police were also found to have deviated from standard operating procedures.

The report triggered a furore in the Assembly with the Shiv Sena-BJP accusing the panel of seeking to give a clean chit to the police. With the writing on the wall for Gafoor,on June 13 he was removed from the Police Commissioner’s post and promoted as managing director,Maharashtra Police Welfare and Housing Corporation. D Sivanandan,who was the state intelligence chief at the time,took over as Mumbai CP.

Subsequently,the force had to adjust to another change of guard,when on October 31,then state DGP S S Virk retired. With no formal successor announced yet,DGP (Anti-Corruption Bureau) A N Roy is holding charge as acting DGP.

By then,the 26/11 probe had taken a dramatic new twist with the FBI’s arrests in Chicago of Pakistan-born American David Headley and Pakistani-origin Canadian Tahawwur Rana. On October 26,the FBI charged the two of planning attacks in Denmark and India.

When it was learnt that Headley and Rana had visited several places in India including Mumbai,the police began retracing his steps in the city. According to the police,filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt’s son Rahul Bhatt had been in contact with Headley who had set up a visa facilitation centre in Tardeo.

On December 7,the FBI filed new charges directly linking Headley to 26/11. According to the FBI,Headley “conducted extensive surveillance of targets in Mumbai for more than two years preceding the November 2008 terrorist attack”. Headley had stayed in the Hotel Taj Mahal Palace and Towers.

A fresh controversy broke recently when Gafoor was quoted by The Week as having said four top police officers,JCP K L Prasad,and Addl CPs Parambir Singh,Deven Bharti and K Venkatesham,had shown reluctance in taking on the 26/11 terrorists. The government has backed the four officers and promised action against Gafoor,who has said his comments had been made off the record.

A year on,the prosecution in the 26/11 trial has wrapped up its case while a better equipped Mumbai Police is following up fresh evidence with the arrests of Headley and Rana. The police are expected to seek a Letter Rogatory to ask for details of the FBI’s investigations,and later file a supplementary chargesheet.