Mumbai: Fearless as a policeman, peerless as a leader

Muhammed Qavi one of the first members of the original Anti Terrorism Squad ATS that was formed to combat the Khalistan menace in Mumbai in the late 1980s passed away early on Wednesday morning The celebrated officer who retired as assistant commissioner of police in 2000 was part of several highprofile operations in the 80s and 90s and was known for his foolproof strategic planning and impeccable understanding of the lawSources close to the family said that Qavi who was 81 years old complained of chest pain in the morning and was rushed to a nearby hospital where he breathed his last He is survived by his three daughtersmdashFarina Kalu Asma Farooqui and Farha Motorwala He was staying in Dahisar at the time of his demiseAlso ReadWhy did Willy Black from Khotachiwadi stop playing Santa ClausA police inspector posted with the Malwani police station in 1989 Qavi was among the first few cops to be handpicked by the late IPS officer Aftab Ahmed Khan for the ATS The special squad was constituted under then police commissioner S Ramamurthyrsquos supervision after Khalistani separatists gunned down Police SubInspector Lakhmer Singh with the Mumbai traffic police in broad daylight in December 1989 This was when Khalistanis were increasingly migrating to Mumbai following Operation Bluestar in Punjab which had resulted in the killing of Khalistan leader Jarnail Singh BhindranwaleQavi and Deshmukh at a function held to felicitate the ATS after the Lokhandwala encounterQavi was soon joined by veterans like retired ACPs Iqbal Sheikh Sunil Deshmukh and Bhanupratap Barge Qavi was part of the ATSrsquo very first operation in January 1990 where they traced PSI Lakhmer Singhrsquos killers all the way to Gujarat and shot them dead in a 22hour gun battleldquoI am yet to see an officer as brave as himrdquo said Sheikh ldquoHis drafting of legal documents was par excellence his command over the English language was terrific his cooperative nature was worth emulating and his sense of humour as well as commitment to friends and colleagues was unmatchedrdquoThis writer saw a sample of Qavirsquos sense of humour firsthand during an interaction in 2021 when the retired cop referred to the 2007 film lsquoShootout at Lokhandwalarsquo The film is a dramatic retelling of the ATSrsquos encounter with Dgang shooters Maya Dolas and Dilip Kohak alias Dilip Buwa with Suniel Shettyrsquos character loosely being based on Qavi ldquoThe buggers got me divorced in the filmrdquo Qavi had said at the time ldquoGood thing it was just a filmrdquoBut underneath the humour Qavi still bore the scars of the nearfatal skirmish he had with Dolas and Buwa that fateful afternoon on November 16 1991 Qavi Deshmukh and Zunjarrao Gharal reached the Lokhandwala Complex to verify a tipoff about the two gangsters being holed up there Qavi as always took the lead He gently pushed open the door to the groundfloor apartment where the shooters were believed to be hiding Buwa a coldblooded murderer didnrsquot even bat an eyelid as he reached for his AK47 assault rifle and opened fire in the copsrsquo directionldquoQavi sir took a bullet in his right hand and could not fire back as a result I managed to dodge the hail of bullets but Gharal was not so lucky He was hit in the chest and we had to pull him away as he was bleeding heavily Had that not happened we might have finished the encounter within minutesrdquo recalled DeshmukhHe added that even after Gharal was rushed to the hospital Qavi was still standing at the spot waiting for backup to arrive cradling his bleeding right hand in his left Around 45 minutes later A A Khan reached the spot with plenty of backupldquoKhan sir had to order Qavi sir to go to the hospital which he did after registering his strongest objectionsrdquo Deshmukh said adding that he suffered permanent nerve damage to two fingers of his right hand as a resultBut Qavi was an equally formidable adversary in a courtroom as he was on the field Barge recalls an incident in March 1991 when the ATS had arrested Baba Bachchi a dreaded gangster When the ATS sought his custody for the second time the gangstersrsquo lawyers started making short work of the public prosecutorldquoQavi sir asked the prosecutor to get the matter adjourned to the afternoon When the hearing came up he himself stepped up and sought permission to argue on the statersquos behalf For the next hour he presented argument after argument with pindrop silence in the courtroom and no argument from the defence We got 14 days of custodyrdquo said BargeQavirsquos circle of affectionate admirers extended far beyond police personnel He was equally close to their family members as well Khanrsquos daughter Alisha who grew up surrounded by the ATS cops remembers him as a lsquokhush mizaajrsquo gentleman but also a lethal cop at the same timeldquoI once complimented him on the ittar he had applied and from that day on he always got me a bottle every time we met He doted so much on my son too and would always inquire after his health and progress at schoolrdquo Alisha told midday2000Year M A Qavi retired from service as ACP