Goodbye, braveheart

Saturday, 3.30 pm. All roads leading to Nigam Bodh Ghat were lined with white Ambassador cars as traffic police officers scurried around, manning them.

Saturday, 3.30 pm. All roads leading to Nigam Bodh Ghat were lined with white Ambassador cars as traffic police officers scurried around, manning them.

For the first time in the history of Delhi Police, four former Police Commissioners 8212; M B Kaushal, T R Kakkar, Ajai Raj Sharma and K K Paul 8212; were present together to bid a final farewell to an inspector. Police officers of all ranks, many of whom had never even worked with the deceased, were present at Nigam Bodh Ghat.

And they were all bidding farewell to a hero: Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma, who died in the gunbattle with alleged militants in Jamia Nagar on Friday.

Not just police brass, even politicians across party lines came to pay final tributes. Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil, Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal, senior BJP leader L K Advani, Lieutenant Governor Tejendra Khanna, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and scores of BJP and Congress politicians from the Capital were present.

Amid a sea of khaki, Inspector Sharma8217;s body was brought on a flower-decked Delhi Police truck. The 12 ceremonial guards fired three rounds from their .303 rifles and the 8216;Last Post8217; was played in the background as cries of 8220;Jai Bharat Mata8221; and 8220;Jai M C Sharma8221; rent the air. Several other mourners who had also come to bid a final farewell to their loved ones forgot their personal grief and stood watching the grand procession.

Police Commissioner Y S Dadwal and Joint Commissioner Karnal Singh carried Sharma8217;s body.

Sharma8217;s close associate, Assistant Sub Inspector Prahlad Meena, who had worked with him for the past 12 years, broke down. Meena had been running around since morning at Sharma8217;s Dwarka residence, making arrangements for the last rites. At the cremation, however, he could not hold back his tears any longer.

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Also crying inconsolably was Sub-Inspector Dharmendar, the first police official to go to the flat housing the alleged militants posing as a salesman and who later carried Sharma to the hospital. In a daze almost the whole of Friday in bloodstained clothes, Dharmendar was quiet since Saturday morning. Assistant Sub-Inspector Anil Tyagi, who had also worked with Sharma, had been controlling crowd since morning. Weary and anxious, he shouted time and again, pleading with the crowd to give space for his senior8217;s body.

Sharma8217;s 14-year old son Divyanshu could not perform the last rites since he continues to be unwell 8212; the boy is in hospital with dengue.