Ved Marwah was truly a phenomenal police officer
After the late Rustamji, Ashwani Kumar and other luminaries, he, along with Julio Ribeiro and K.P.S. Gill, was considered amongst the finest policemen.
Ved Marwah will go down in history as one of the most iconic officers of all times, who not only left an indelible print on the Indian Police Service, but also the rank and file of various organisations connected with it. After the late Rustamji, Ashwani Kumar and other luminaries, he, along with Julio Ribeiro and K.P.S. Gill was considered amongst the finest policemen, whose contribution in maintaining law and order was exceptional.
When in 1980, I began covering city affairs, Marwah’s exploits were well-documented in the police annals. He had been awarded the President’s Gallantry Medal for controlling the explosive Sadar Bazaar riots in June 1974 when he was DIG (Range) and Vijai Kapoor, the former Lt. Governor was the Deputy Commissioner, Delhi. An alumnus of St. Stephens College, he had joined the IPS in 1956 and was initially allotted the West Bengal cadre.
He was transferred to the capital sometime in the early sixties and served in various capacities including SP (Security) and SP (North). Subsequently, he was allotted the Union Territory cadre. He worked closely in the Police Commission with both Rustamji and Dharmvira. Incidentally, he was SP (Security) when Rajiv Gandhi married Sonia, and was later posted in London as the First
Secretary of the Indian High Commission.
Marwah shot into limelight when the Pakistanis released Sheikh Mujibur Rehman in London following the end of the hostilities in the early seventies, and Rehman also known as the Banga Bandhu, was escorted to New Delhi by him in a special flight.
I had the good fortune of getting to know him rather well, when in early 1985, he was handpicked by the Centre, to inquire into the police lapses during the 1984 riots. S.S. Jog, an able and highly competent police officer from Maharashtra, had replaced Subhash Tandon as the Police Commissioner, and Marwah worked under him for a brief period, trying hard to devise ways of raising the morale of an extremely demoralized Delhi Police, that was accused of gunning down the Prime Minister in cold blood, as well as being a silent spectator to the Sikh genocide.
Jog was keen to return to his home state due to personal reasons, and therefore the government took a decision in early May 1985 to appoint Ribeiro as the Delhi Police Commissioner. In fact, Riberio’s name plate was affixed on the gate, outside the earmarked residence of the Commissioner of Police at Alipur Road, when the transistor bomb blasts rocked the capital. At that time, I was a crime reporter with the Times of India and I vividly recall that the first reports of the series of blasts came in on the evening of 10 May.
The city was in the grip of total fear and a palpable sense of insecurity prevailed as the explosions continued for the next two days. It was at this juncture when a providential breakthrough took place; Amod Kanth was DCP, Central, and he received a call from his officers posted at Patel Nagar that they had apprehended a militant in possession of explosives. The Patel Nagar SHO, Manchanda, assisted by two Sub Inspectors, had taken Kartar Singh Narang into custody, and shortly after had arrested Mohinder Singh Calcutta and Mohinder Singh Plywoodwala.
Marwah who was officiating as the CP, held a press conference announcing that the case had been solved within 48 hours. The three accused were granted police remand and one of them died in custody. (Recently the accused were acquitted by the court since the police failed to press adequate charges against them.) The Centre reviewed its earlier decision naming Marwah as the next Commissioner, thereby cancelling Ribeiro’s orders.
Thus, Peshawar born Marwah became the first Delhi Police Commissioner who was from the UT Cadre as also a recipient of the gallantry medal. During his stint, we shared a fond friendship of sorts, and whenever I needed to speak to him, he would direct his staff officer, P.N. Arora to give me an immediate appointment.
Those were turbulent times, with the Sikh militancy at its peak. Marwah personally supervised the investigation of sensitive cases, whether it was the killing of Congress leader Lalit Maken, his wife, Gitanjali and an activist Balkishen on 31 July 1985 or that of Arjun Dass on 4 September of the same year. The gruesome murders were the handiwork of Harjinder Singh Jinda, who also assassinated former Army Chief, General A.S. Vaidya in Pune. Jinda was later arrested and hanged. All this while, Marwah led from the front and ensured that once again, the Delhi Police became a professional outfit. In the meanwhile, I had moved over to The Hindu and another major incident that occured during his eventful tenure, was an attempt on the life of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on October 2nd, 1986 at Raj Ghat. At that time, Marwah was in Italy and Karamjit Singh, the suspect, was nabbed from the top of a canopy at Raj Ghat. The lapses were taken note of and Gautam Kaul, a senior officer related to the Gandhi family, who was in charge of security had to face disciplinary proceedings, though subsequently he was cleared of all charges levelled against him. He was targeted primarily because of Arun Nehru, then a powerful figure, who for perhaps reasons known solely to him, wanted to frame Kaul.
Marwah handled the Sikh protests in a deft yet firm manner and when on December 6th, 1986, a youngster drove his truck over three CRPF personnel posted outside Gurdwara Bangla Saheb, there was a near revolt in the CRPF. Arun Bhagat, number two in the hierarchy, was manhandled by enraged CRPF jawans and Marwah called S.D. Pandey, the CRPF, DGP to instantly remove the rebel battalion from the scene. An ugly situation was thus averted.
Marwah continued to have his share of problems constantly facing difficult moments when on 13 June 1987, Surjeet Singh Penta, a former middle-distance runner of Delhi, and Jinda’s nephew, gunned down over a dozen people in South Delhi; the shooting spree beginning at a birthday party at the Behl residence in Greater Kailash-1. Penta struck again on July 30th gunning down BJP leaders, Hansraj Sethi and Sudershan Munjal. Marwah obviously was under immense stress yet solved the cases, though Penta managed to evade arrest.
Another fact that needs to be mentioned, is that following a major incident, perceived as a security lapse of monumental proportions, he almost lost his post as the Police Commissioner. On November 18th, 1987, Soviet Deputy Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzkhov arrived in New Delhi. He was received by Rajiv Gandhi and the VVIP motorcade proceeded through the ceremonial route towards Rashtrapati Bhawan. K. Natwar Singh, a minister who intimately knew Marwah, requested him for a lift in his official car, so as to enable him to reach Parliament on time, to respond to queries related to his ministry. His plea being that no one would stop the CP’S car. Marwah obliged and the two raced towards Parliament with Haryana politician Bhajan Lal closely following them in his own vehicle.
As the car neared Parliament, Marwah’s driver turned towards the Freeman’s Avenue (Hukmibai Marg) so as to make it to the South Sunken Road within the President’s Estate—this a shortcut towards the Vijay Chowk. As the car turned right to the South Sunken Road, the VVIP motorcade of the Soviet leader approached the Rashtrapati Bhawan on the same path from the opposite direction. The VVIP convoy had entered through the gate next to the Cabinet Secretariat’s block. Marwah’s driver attempted to reverse straight away but it was not possible since Bhajan Lal’s car was tailing too closely. The SPG considered it as a serious security lapse and Marwah was sent on forced leave. A detailed inquiry was conducted by T.N. Seshan, the then Secretary (Security). The Delhi Police team led by Dr K.K. Paul was able to convince him that South Sunken Road was never a part of the ceremonial route, and this path was taken since the main gate of Rashtrapati Bhawan was closed, to accommodate the Floats taking part in the Soviet Cultural Festival, next to the Jaipur Column.
Sarla Grewal, principal secretary to the Prime Minister also defended Marwah, who two weeks later was brought back as the Commissioner. He later relinquished office in April 1988 to pave the way for Raja Vijay Karan. Marwah was then sent as the head of the National Security Guard, which was at that stage, participating in a well-conceived Intelligence Bureau Operation, Black Thunder-ii, to free the Golden Temple complex of militants, who had holed themselves up there. Incidentally, the Operation was planned by the present National Security Adviser, Ajit Doval who was a key functionary of the IB, and it was also in May 1988 when KPS Gill took over the reins of the Punjab Police from Ribeiro.
I covered this Operation for the Hindu, and never gave a thought that four of the most celebrated police officers of our times were in it together assisting each other to meet their collective objective. Penta who was responsible for the 1987 violence in Delhi committed suicide after surrendering on 20 May by consuming cyanide at the culmination of the exercise.
I met Marwah yet again in August 1991, this time in Srinagar, where he was the security adviser to the Governor, Gary Saxena. Incidentally, Vijai Kapoor was posted there as the Chief Secretary. All through my second innings with the TOI, and later my long stint with the Hindustan Times, and even later so, Marwah and I remained in touch. We would often run into each other at the India International Centre. He was proud of his Peshawari roots and since my father had done his schooling from that city, we would end up talking about Moti Mahal, Khyber and of course, Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor, both who hailed from there. He expressed how blessed he felt that he was able to visit his birth place with the Indian delegation after Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan’s demise.
I met him occasionally during his Gubernatorial assignments when he would come to Delhi on official work. He had a fine sense of humour, cracking jokes and narrating engaging anecdotes regarding his varied experiences.
Marwah was truly a phenomenon. There will never be another like him. He was the Commissioner of most Commissioners I have known. Rest in Peace.