Khwaja Hassan Gafoor had a tenure of less than 16 months as Mumbai Police Commissioner but his term was anything but short of action. The soft-spoken and low-profile Gafoor was thought to be the ideal choice as his predecessor D N Jadhav had come in for severe criticism for being dismissive about certain shocking crimes in the financial capital. Gafoor had his hands full from the word go. He took over at the peak of the anti-migrant campaign launched by Raj Thackeray and his Maharashtra Navnirman Sena and the 44,000-strong force he headed had came under national focus for its inability to swiftly deal with Thackeray and his goons,apparently because of a lack of political backing. But that crisis was nothing compared to the carnage of 26/11 when 10 Lashkar-e-Toiba men raided the city and virtually held it to ransom for three days. With the response of the Mumbai Police in the first hours of the siege coming under attack and the state Government appointing a two-member panel to probe the issues raised by the response,the writing was on the wall for Gafoor and it seemed more like a matter of time before he would be replaced. In fact,when the likes of Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh,Deputy CM R R Patil and Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil lost their post-attacks,political circles were abuzz about how politicians had been scapegoats while bureaucrats and police officers were not held accountable. With the Pradhan panel report due to be submitted in the Assembly this week,and the inquiry apparently laying much of the blame at Gafoors door,the 1974-batch IPS officer was on Saturday shifted out and appointed Director-General of Maharashtra Police Housing and Welfare Corporation a promotion and not a transfer,as he was quick to point out. There was a pressing need for a strong leader and an image makeover for the Mumbai Police when Gafoor,the senior-most Additional Director General of Police rank officer at the time,was appointed the city police chief,becoming only the second Muslim to hold the post after Syed Majeedullah (1962 to 1965). His predecessor Jadhav was criticised for his remark equating the medias coverage of two NRI girls being groped in the city by a mob on New Years Eve to making a mountain out of a molehill. The image of the Mumbai Police had also taken a beating for the manner in which it was seen to toe the line of its political bosses while dealing with the violent anti-north Indian protests launched by the MNS in February last year. Although an engineer,civil services seemed to be in Gafoors blood with his father,Khwaja Abdul Gafoor,being an IAS officer and serving as an Additional Chief Secretary in the Maharashtra Government until 1976. A lean frame with a smiling face,Gafoor was known for his unassuming nature and for the better part of his tenure he chose to limit his interactions with the media and his responses to questions on sensitive issues would usually be non-committal. Ironically,he was viewed as the least likely candidate within the force to court any sort of controversy. But there were quite a few during the past 16 months such as the killing of Patna youth Rahul Raj,who had taken over a BEST bus and held passengers hostage at gunpoint. They all,however,paled in comparison to the criticism he faced for his leadership during 26 The Pradhan report is believed to be critical of Gafoors role in marshalling the force during the unprecedented assault. Although the report has not been made public,speculation about its contents triggered a furore in the ongoing Assembly session with the Opposition Shiv Sena-BJP accusing the panel of seeking to give a clean chit to the police. Sources in the government had,however,said the panel had not given Mumbai Police a clean chit and had,in fact,blamed Gafoor. Senior police officers also privately expressed their dissatisfaction with his leadership.
