London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Sep 19, 2025

Mumbai’s ‘killer elite’ in the spotlight after Asia’s richest man gets a bomb scare

Mumbai’s ‘killer elite’ in the spotlight after Asia’s richest man gets a bomb scare

The authorities replaced the police chief of India’s financial capital and federal detectives arrested an officer as they probed a car with explosives near the Mumbai home of Asia’s richest man in a string of events that has put the focus on the city’s trigger-happy cops.

Mumbai’s new police commissioner Hemant Nagrale has his task cut out for him.

He must refurbish the image of Mumbai’s 45,500-member police force and also look for those who planted an explosives-laden SUV near the 27-storied home of billionaire Mukesh Ambani on February 25.

“We will definitely retain the glory and pride of Mumbai police," Nagrale said, three days after anti-terror detectives arrested a controversial assistant police inspector in connection with the case.


A threatening note was also found in the SUV.

"This is a trailer …We have made arrangements to blow up your entire family," the note said.

Ambani, whose business assets are worth 63.6 billion Euros, has so far not reacted.

Deepening mystery


The body of the SUV’s temporary owner was found in a creek on March 5, deepening the mystery further as he was allegedly known to the detained officer Sachin Vaze.

Investigators also recovered a luxury car, wads of cash and a bank-note counting machine from the possession of officer Vaze.


Newspapers said the Vaze who worked in the elite crime branch was counted among an elite group of officers who were cult figures in crime-weary Mumbai in the 1990s.

Media credits the 49-year-old with gunning down 63 suspected gangsters between 1997 and 2004, when he was suspended for the custodial death of a Moslem software engineer.

Vaze -- mentored by another inspector with 312 reported kills to his name --- temporarily joined the Shiv Sena party, which now leads a coalition government in Maharashtra of which Mumbai is the capital.

Opposition seek answers


The state’s former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis called for a probe into Waze’s links.

“Who are behind this? That should be probed. Political bosses who operated Waze will have to be found out," Fadnavis, now an opposition leader, told reporters.

The Shiv Sena party however dismissed the change of guard in the Mumbai police leadership as “routine.”

"If the opposition thinks the transfers have been done under any pressure, then it is false,” party leader Sanjay Raut said.

License to kill


Julio Ribeiro, a celebrated officer who was Mumbai’s police chief for four years said it was a “tragedy” that trigger-happy officers were treated as heroes and allowed a free hand.

“It is a tragedy that police leaders face --- subordinate rank officers who show an inclination for the fight are much in demand,” the ace crime fighter wrote in the Indian Express daily on Thursday.

“Yet, if not supervised, they turn rogue very early in their career,” he said.

“Besides acquiring unaccounted for wealth, these specialists become darlings of the middle class. Biopics are made on their achievements,” Ribeiro added.

Officers who claim killing suspected gangsters in self-defense are popularly called “encounter specialists” and they often find public support.

“Police leaders should dump encounter specialists because they are a danger to society,” Ribeiro added.

But a spate of Bollywood and regional films on trigger-happy policemen have done extremely well at the box-office.

Daya Nayak of Mumbai police was one such specialist who inspired a 2004 Bollywood thriller and a sequel one year later.

Both were runaway hits at the box office.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Massive Strikes in France Pressure Macron and New PM on Austerity Proposals
Trump Seeks Supreme Court Permission to Remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook
Hillary Clinton’s Reckless Rhetoric Fuels Division After Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
NASDAQ Rises to Record as Intel Soars More Than 20%, Nvidia Gains 3%
Nvidia’s $5 Billion Bet on Intel Reshapes AI Hardware Landscape
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Trump’s Quip on Biden and Google Lawsuit Revives Debate Over Antitrust Legacy
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
×