Rakesh Maria, the ex-commissioner of Mumbai Police in his recently launched autobiography “Let Me say it now” has revealed that Mumbai Police had detailed intelligence on a plot to kill T-series founder and music baron Gulshan Kumar, down to the name of the underworld don whose gang had been assigned the task. Even though Mumbai Police was aware of the plan and how it was supposed to unfold, the police could not avert the death of Kumar who was shot dead on 12 August 1997 outside a Shiv Temple which was near his house.
It all began with a telephone call in the early hours of April 22, 1997.“Sir, Gulshan Kumar ka wicket girne wala hai (Sir, Gulshan Kumar is about to be assassinated),” the voice on the other end said.
“Who is the wicket-taker”, Maria asked. “Abu Salem, saab. Usne apne shooters ke saath sab plan nakki kiya hai. Gulshan Kumar roz subah gharse nikalke pehle ek Shiv mandir jata hai. Wahin pe kaam khatam karne wale hain. (Abu Salem is the one planning to kill Gulshan Kumar. He has finalised the plan with his shooters. The first thing that Gulshan Kumar does in the morning after leaving home each day is to go to a nearby Shiv temple. That is where they are going to bump him off),” the informant replied.
After receiving the tip from his informant, at daybreak, Maria called film producer-director Mahesh Bhatt and asked him whether he knew Gulshan Kumar and whether he was aware that he visited a Shiv temple every morning. Maria also told Bhatt the reason he was inquiring. Bhatt called back after a while to confirm the information.
“Then I told Bhatt I would be briefing the Crime Branch and he must tell Gulshan Kumar not to stir out of the house till the Crime Branch had got in touch with him and made arrangements for his safety,” wrote Maria, the then Assistant Inspector General (Law and Order, and Crime).
Maria then called up the Crime Branch and filled them on all the crucial details and ultimately Kumar was provided with the requisite protection by the Mumbai Police. Though Maria delayed the inevitable for some months, the doomsday clock inevitably struck for Gulshan Kumar three months later. “It came as a big shock to me when on 12 August 1997, I received a call that conveyed the news of Gulshan Kumar’s murder, in the manner that it had been described,” Maria concluded in the book. The investigation after the murder revealed that Gulshan Kumar was being provided security by a contingent of the Uttar Pradesh Police as he owned a cassette factory in Noida. Therefore, the security provided by the Mumbai Police was withdrawn. “Somewhere down the line, routine and apathy could have set in, as it often happens in prolonged watch and ward duties,” Maria explained.
Maria is one of the most decorated police officers of the country and his role in the 1993 serial bomb blast case has been a sort of urban legend. In his memoir, Maria, apart from Gulshan Kumar’s death also made a stunning disclosure– which exposed what seems like a deep-rooted conspiracy behind the “Hindu terror” myth propagated by the Congress during the UPA era. He revealed that Kasab, a terrorist involved in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks and the only one to be caught alive thanks to Tukaram Omble’s bravery was to die as a Hindu terrorist- a Bengaluru resident, Samir Chaudhari with a ‘red thread tied around his wrist’ (kalava) had things gone according to what the terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba had planned.
Maria further disclosed that all the 10 terrorists, including Kasab, were given fake ID cards with Hindu names on them. He has revealed that ISI had planned to portray the 26/11 terror attack as “Hindu terrorism”. Maria has also revealed that Dawood Ibrahim’s D gang was given money to kill Kasab in the custody.
