Mumbai: Police Inspector Dinesh Kadam, 49, of the Khar police station is the cop who appears to the on the verge of cracking a sensational murder case, a case that has gripped the nation and its television channels, not only becuase the dramatis personnae involved are media personalites themseleves, but also because it involves both page 3 society and its complexity. The complexity is explained simply on whats app thus:
“A 2nd Wife of her 3rd husband is charged along with her 2nd husband for killing her daughter from her 1st husband who was having an affair with her 3rd husband’s son from his 1st wife”!
Kadam is Mumbai top cop Rakesh Maria’s trusted man. He had, together with Rakesh Maria, cracked the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts’ case, sent Abu Salem to jail and helped bust the Indian Mujahideen terror network in Maharashtra.
Bora had disappeared in April 2012 and there was no sign of her till Kadam started on the case. Now the that the people involved are in custody, Maria is himself leading the questioning and investigation.
Cracking the Mumbai Blasts case
The same duo cracked Mumbai serial blasts case in March 1993. They were in the traffic department at the time. Police were informed that an abandoned Maruti van was near the Siemens factory in Worli, central Mumbai. Kadam, then a police sub-inspector, reached the van first as he was patrolling the area. He saw that the van’s glass was broken and asked locals if they knew who owned the car. They replied that some suspicious men had left the car there in a hurry. On closer examination, Kadam found out that the car was laden with explosives. He immediately informed Maria who was then deputy commissioner of police (traffic).
Maria then found out from the number plate — MFC 1972 — that it belonged to Rubina Memon, sister-in-law of Tiger Memon staying at Al-Husseni building in Mahim. Maria with Kadam then went to the building and broke into Tiger Memon’s home. There they found a scooter key on the refrigerator.The abandoned scooter was found parked in Dadar also laden with explosives outside a doctor’s clinic thus, establishing and confirming the role of the Memons in the 1993 blasts case.
Thus the case was busted.
The excellent rapport has kept them together since. When Maria moved to head the Anti-Terrorism Squad in 2010, Kadam too moved with him.
An officer Par Excellence
Kadam has solved some big cases like that against gangster Abu Salem when he killed builder Pradeep Jain. Kadam built a water-tight case after Salem was deported from Portugal. Based on his investigation, Salem was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment.
Kadam was sent to United States with two other officers to get forensic expertise after the 26/11 attacks.
Kadam also came close to arresting dreaded terrorist Yasin Bhatkal in his home town of Bhatkal, Karnataka. Unfortunately, Bhatkal fled minutes before the police arrived on the scene.
Kadam’s biggest achievement was the crackdown on the Indian Muhajideen terror group. The duo with other trusted officers arrested most members of the Indian Mujahideen in Mumbai and Maharashtra. When Afzal Usmani, a dreaded Indian Mujahdeen operative, escaped from court it was Kadam who got him arrested through his informer network at the Indo-Nepal border.
At one point in time, Kadam did face allegations that he had arrested the wrong man (Himayat Baig) in Pune’s German Bakery blast case. But, a Pune court overruled the defence argument and sentenced Baig to death.
Well deserved praise
Maria has personally praised Kadam and called him one of Mumbai’s best officers.
He told the Times of India, “There are officers like Dinesh Kadam, Sukhlal Varpe and a few others who have never hit headlines. But they have done good paperwork, attended court cases, filed chargesheets and ensured convictions of notorious gangsters.”
