Historic crime department constructing to be redeveloped
MUMBAI: The bottom-plus-two-storey constructing contained in the Mumbai police headquarters in Fort, which has served because the workplace of the crime department since 1909, will quickly be demolished as it’s dilapidated and past restore. The crime department will briefly shift to the Bawla compound in Chinchpokli and the brand new constructing within the commissioner’s workplace until a six-storeyed constructing comes up instead of the sooner construction, stated sources in Mumbai police.
“The constructing’s front-end made from stone continues to be in correct situation, however the iron beams on the again have rusted and have gotten more and more unsafe by the day,” a senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer advised Hindustan Instances. Structural auditors who examined the century-old constructing beneficial that it’s demolished due to the weak back-side, he stated.
“Moreover, the general energy of town police drive has elevated and we face a extreme house crunch on the headquarters,” the officer stated. Other than the crime department, the brand new, six-storeyed constructing will home the CCTV monitoring centre, the executive department and assembly rooms, the officer famous.
Historical constructing
When Mumbai was rocked by demonstrations in 1908 in mild of the arrest of nationalist chief Bal Gangadhar Tilak on prices of sedition, the colonial authorities turned its consideration to gathering intelligence on political activists. On June 8, 1909, it arrange the Legal Investigation Division (CID), which changed the detective department and began functioning as an elite organisation positioned below the management of a deputy commissioner of police.
The 2-storeyed constructing, which was used to accommodate Haj pilgrims for a couple of weeks, was allotted to the newly-formed CID of the Imperial Police in June 1909 itself. Known as the GBCB (Better Bombay Crime Department) CID, it investigated crimes of delicate, political and spiritual nature – its mandate being largely much like the present crime department.
The Particular Department, which gathered political intelligence and details about political activists and foreigners visiting India, was carved out of the CID in 1920. It moved to a constructing near St Xavier’s Faculty round ten years later whereas the CID continued working out of its earlier premises.
In latest a long time, the two-storey constructing has witnessed the interrogation of a number of hardened criminals and celebrities. Their ranks embrace terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab, who had landed within the metropolis together with 9 different members of the Pakistani terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba on November 26, 2008 and held town to siege over the subsequent 72 hours, killing 164 individuals.
Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt was interrogated within the constructing by former police commissioner Rakesh Maria, in reference to the March 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai. Underworld dons Rajendra Sadashiv Nikalje aka Chhota Rajan, Arun Gawli, Abu Salem and Ejaz Lakdawala have been additionally detained and interrogated within the constructing by crime department officers.
The demolition of the constructing will start in one other month or two, stated a senior police officer.
“Some sections of the crime department will likely be shifted to a 15-storey constructing in Bawla Compound in Chinchpokli until the brand new constructing is prepared,” the officer stated. “Nevertheless, the joint commissioner police (crime) and another officers will transfer to the fourth flooring of the brand new constructing within the commissioner’s workplace.”
The Chinchpokli constructing homes the workplace of the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) throughout three flooring, the officer added.
