From the crime diaries

Dial D for Don — Inside Stories of CBI Case Missions 
by Neeraj Kumar.
Penguin.
Pages 288. 
Rs 219

Reviewed by KV Prasad

Tales of crime and criminals are interesting and this reviewer is a scribe who cut his teeth in general reporting, through mandatory reporting of crime and police. In pursuit of duty, the reviewer also reported many cases involving the Central Bureau of Investigation, where the author worked in different capacities.

Each of the 11 episodes the author selected was sensational reports about crime and its perpetrators. As the saying goes, truth is stranger than fiction and going through this very readable book, it would not be an exaggeration to state that at times, it was as if the reader was going through a racy thriller.

The infamous Bombay blasts of 1993 conversations with the don — Dawood Ibrahim, who continues to be an enigma, or some of the shady characters of the underworld the author dealt with in his professional carrier is a revelation.

Interestingly, as a correspondent, the reviewer had reported some of these events. This book gives its readers glimpses of the operations that are seldom heard, even during closed-door conversations. It is amazing that Neeraj Kumar wields the pen with the same, if not lesser dexterity with the gun, a standard armoury for any top cop. Some of the episodes especially Operation Desert Safari launched in the heart of posh South Delhi or another, The Return Gift, a payback episode chronicling the tracking down (of) a lady fugitive wanted by authorities in the United Arab Emirates are written with alacrity and speed and make for an absorbing read.

The chapters bring about the level of inter-government, intra-government coordination and also the pitfalls. It is not often one can imagine the way roadblocks and impediments are resolved with speed and ensuring operational secrecy required in most cases. For instance, the episode dealing with the escape of members of the Memon family led by Yakub, who has since been hanged, from the clutches of the Inter-Services Intelligence of Pakistan is pulsating. Through some clever thinking and smart planning that required not just official sanctions but cooperation at echelons of authority, exhibits what personal rapport can do or achieve to cut through the dreaded red-tape of bureaucracy.

Interestingly, the author avoids making any reference to the controversy over the arrest of Yakub Memon in Delhi and the snafu in a Delhi court where the fugitive spilled the beans of the operations that had embarrassed the government of the day. Since then, the CBI began obtaining judicial remand on camera before announcing the arrest of other members of the Memon family.

The author does well to write about one of the most sensational cases, alleged match-fixing by some players in a T-20 match. The case, currently in courts, is a good follow-up to the earlier instance when such a practice by bookies, through a compromised South African captain, Hansie Cronje shook the world. While the book talks of successes, it would have been helpful had the police officer shed some light on the infamous encounter with terrorist in an upmarket mall that left doubt the veracity of the claim. An eminently readable book.