Rohini Salian, prosecutor for the Malegaon case, met him the day he met his untimely end. “I met him at 7.30 p.m. We were supposed to meet the next day and have a briefing. I saw him later on television wearing a bullet-proof jacket. In another 15 minutes, there was a news flash about his death. I prayed that the news should be a mistake.” Salian says he was an officer right till the end. Her first interaction with him was over a decade ago, when he was a witness in a TADA case where Arun Gawli was an accused. “He was very polished, balanced, soft-spoken and had all the details. That has not changed over the years. It was only in the last week that I saw a tinge of hurt in his eyes for the first time, as if he was a little upset with the way he was being maligned over the Malegaon investigation. On his last day, he was all charged up as we discussed the case details. It is a huge loss.”

While friends recall him as the cop who fought with a private bank that refused to give money to the families of three constables when they died in the line of fire, Parambir adds that the lack of basic amenities like water and living conditions for the staff upset him the most. His good friend Deepesh Mehta, who was among the first to reach JJ Mortuary, recalls that Karkare liked strange combos like “rice and milk” and was an avid fan of literature, both Marathi and English. He could hold his own in any debate. “He told me 15 days ago that we should try to work on measures for recyling water,” Mehta says. 

... contd.