Hero cop died capturing Kasab,daughter joins the force

Bharti,who is also pursuing an M.Com degree,is working as a junior clerk in the Traffic Police headquarters,Worli,a job the Mumbai Police offered on compassionate grounds to kin of policemen who died on 26/11.

Omble’s eldest daughter Vaishali,24,plans to take up teaching once she completes her B Ed this year. Bharti was the only one who could take the job. Emotions apart,there was another compelling reason: Room Number 15,Building 7,Worli Police Camp. Joining the Mumbai Police would mean the tiny residential quarters will now be under Bharti’s name.

“We have stayed in this house all these years. There are many memories that linger here and since he is no more,there are all the more reasons for us not to leave this place,” says Tara,Omble’s widow. The family has been staying in the 350-sq feet flat for 20 years and prefers not to move into the more spacious house at Sion they received as part of the compensation package. Had Bharti not taken the police job,the family would have had to vacate the home within three years.

Bharti was also offered the option of joining the Local Arms Division 3 — Omble’s first posting as a police constable — but the family decided against it. “Papa wouldn’t have approved of her joining the main police department. And since she is too young,it would have been difficult for her to work there,” says Vaishali.

“I am happy to take the job,” says Bharti. “It’s a big responsibility,but I am working towards it.” Overwhelmed by the pressure of joining her now-famous father’s profession,she had to be consoled by family members and neighbours after her first day at work.

After Omble’s death last year — he was gunned down at Girgaum Chowpatty,allegedly by Kasab who was fleeing with his partner Abu Ismail in a hijacked Skoda car — it was Bharti who was most traumatised. The girl,family members say,avoids talking about her father and weeps every time he is mentioned. She felt his absence acutely earlier this year when she clear her final exams,says Omble’s long-time friend,ASI Ashok Phatak. At the traffic department too,fellow staff members have been kind and appreciative of Bharti’s efforts,Phatak says.

While it will soon be a year since Omble’s death,the family is still to move on. Vaishali remembers how her father would never knock the door when he returned from work. “He would just give a little cough,and we girls would jump to open the door. And he would always ask if we just kept waiting for him to come home,” Vaishali says.

Seven new pairs of trousers and shirts along with two new sets of uniform that returned from the tailor a few days after 26/11 still lie neatly stacked in the closet,along with his ID card,belt and duty uniform. A few days ago,the girls heard someone coughing outside the door. It was a stranger standing there,not aware what memories he had stirred up.