The Delhi Police has been shaken by Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma’s death, but one place that will feel his absence most is the Special Cell of Delhi Police.

The unit was formed in 1986, when militancy in Punjab was at its heights, with an office in the backyard of the Lodhi Road Police station. For nearly a decade, however, the unit remained in complete anonymity.

“It used to be known as a dumping ground for police officers who either did not perform well or were not in the good books of senior officers,” said a senior police officer. It was also a time when the Delhi crime branch was at its peak. Even the investigation of the 1990s serial bomb blasts was handed over to the crime branch, not to the special cell.

However, in 1998, things began to change. Ashok Chand was appointed DCP. Encounter specialist Rajbir Singh, who had by then made a name for himself, was posted as ACP. Singh handpicked his team from officers whom he had worked with earlier. Mohan Chand Sharma, Badrish Dutt, Lalit Mohan Negi, Hridya Bhushan and several others joined. And since then, there has been no looking back.

Within a couple of years two more branches of the special cell were formed at the south and north districts. “It was a peak time, all the IB inputs used to come to us. DCP Chand and Rajbir Singh ensured that we had excellent relations with the other state police teams too,” said a senior special cell officer. It was during this time that the special cell cracked cases such as the attacks on the Red Fort and Parliament. It was also the time for encounters.

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