JOIN USThe two-member committee, headed by former Governor and Union Home Secretary R D Pradhan appointed by the Maharashtra government to go into the Mumbai terror strikes, found serious lapses on the part of Gafoor in handling the “war-like” multi-pronged attack.
However, it did not find any serious lapses on the part of individual officers and police men of the Mumbai Police. In fact, it praised the courage of officers and men — some may consider as thoughtless — to launch themselves into situation that were hopeless and knowing that they may be killed.
“Supreme instance of that was the way the ASI Tukaram Gopal Omble tackled two terrorists (one of whom was Kasab) in a Skoda car in Chowpatty,” it said. “There was absence of overt leadership on the part of Hasan Gafoor, the CP, and lack of visible Command and Control at the CP’s office,” said the 85-page report.
The report tabled by Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil in the Assembly on Monday said the attack was beyond the capacity of Mumbai Police and had to be tackled by specialised forces like National Security Guards.
The panel said Gafoor did not follow the Standard Operating Practice (SOP) evolved for bomb blasts and terror strikes. He ignored the SOP and decided to direct Joint CP (Crime) to be in-charge of the control room instead of Joint CP (L&O), who as in-charge of all police stations was better suited to decide on marshaling of forces at various sites.
The committee appreciated the role played by Rakesh Maria, Joint CP (Crime) in the control room in handling a very serious situation.