“The Return Gift (Arrest and Deportation of Roshan Ansari)”…

February of 2002 brought me a bag of mixed fortunes. Aftab Ansari and Raju Anadkat, two of the most wanted gangsters of India, were deported from Dubai on the 10th of February 2002. It was the successful culmination of a long and arduous joint police operation in which I had the privilege of playing a significant role. It was a moment of great triumph and jubilation, both for the CBI and me. I was on cloud-nine with euphoria whose fragrance lingers with me till today.

Plenty of follow up action was to be taken and I was fully engrossed in getting the Interrogation Reports of the deportees prepared. The huge database of information that emerged during their interrogations had to be collated from diverse sources and disseminated to various agencies. In the middle of all this, in less than a fortnight, an order reached me that I was repatriated to the Delhi Police, my parent police force.

The sudden move caught me totally off-guard. Even though I had already done my tenure of deputation, the Director had indicated he wanted to retain me a bit longer. He and I, in a matter of just over two years that we had worked together, had come very close to each other professionally. I liked his non-interfering approach and his unconditional support in operational matters. And, my guess is, he too had become fond of me because I showed results that brought laurels to the CBI. However, I had felt a slight change in his attitude towards me ever since a senior officer had joined the organisation a couple of months earlier. I suspect the new entrant was not particularly pleased with the Director’s fondness for me and was working on him slowly, but surely, to distance him from me.

Nevertheless, taken aback with the order, I went to meet the Director in the false hope that I would be asked to continue while he took up the matter with the government. To my utter surprise, he asked me rather matter-of-factly to hand over.

To be continued…