New Delhi, March 28
India's federal counter terrorism probe agency, National Investigation Agency (NIA) will get more sheen to it's body with the appointment of terror expert, 26/11 Mumbai terror attack star officer, Sadananad Vasant Date as the new chief of the agency.
The 1990 batch IPS officer Sadanand Sate is one of the top IPS officers of Maharashtra Police who countered dreaded terrorist Ajmal Kasab during the country's worst terror attacks on November 26, 2008. The ghastly attack is still one of the worst memories for the citizens in Mumbai and most challening situation to date for the Mumbai Police.
During the 26/11 attack Date was posted with the Mumbai Police. While the visitors were stuck at the Taj Hotel, Date chased Ajmal Kasab and his associate Abu Khan to the Cama Hospital where a shootout followed. As Kasab and Khan fired indiscriminately at the hospital staff, Date and his team ensured that the Kasab was nabbed alive whlile the other terrorist was gunned down.
Date not only saved the lives of around 500 persons in the hospital that night but also took a bullet on him. He and his team members were severely injuried in the shootout. The 60 hours long operation of Mumbai Police is a testimony to the valoour and courage of his fallen colleagues who helped him thorughly in that night of horror.
Four years later, in Nov 2012, Date planned and supervised a highly covet operation of shifting Ajmal Kasab from Arthur Road prison in Mumbai to Yerwada prisons in Pune where Kasabd was finally hanged.
It was said earlier in Mumbai Police that a dreaded terrorist Kasab was arrested and hanged in front of Date, the man who was seen chasing him on streets of Mumbai when he hijacked a police car to commit his terror plan.
Date is presently the DG of Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad that counters terrorism at the state level and is credited with several anti terror operations against the home grown Indian Mujaihideen, Student Islamic Movement of India and probed the serial bomb blasts in the country.
He has to his credit several operations that broke the back of terrorism and led to the arrest of key terror operatives in the country in his long span of 34 years in policing. Date served in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) too. During his tenure with the CBI, he was sent on a Humphrey Fellowship (2005-2006) to the University of Minnesota where he studied the scourge of ‘while-collar and organised crimes in the US’, plus the theoretical and practical aspects of dealing with it.
After his stint with the CBI, he served as Additional Commissioner of Police (Economic Offences Wing), headed the elite Force One in Maharashtra, designed on the lines of the National Security Guards. Date was the first Commissioner of Police of the newly-created Mira Bhayander-Vasai Virar Commissionerate (MBVV).
During his stint as Bhandara SP, Date created history by bringing back misguided youth from the Naxal movement into the mainstream. One Naxal, Shivaji Tumreddi, also surrendered an AK-47, the first in the state.
While the citizens in Mumbai and Maharashtra have heard the glorious sucess stories of Date and his policing but very few know how he came into policing.
Born in a humble family in Pune, Date experienced challenges in life right from his childhood. After loosing his father at the age of 15 years, he saw his mother work as a cook for several years. To support his mother, Date started selling newspapers for almost 10 years to support his education in school and college.
He completed his B. Comm and M.Comm., became a Cost Accountant (ICAI), and earned a PhD in Commerce from the Savitribai Phule Pune University. He got attaracted to public service and decided to appear for his UPSC exams. Who would have known that a young boy who sold newspapers cracked to become an IPS officer in 1999.
He was awarded the President’s Medal (2007) and the President’s Police Medal (2008) for his meritorious and gallantry services to the country.
Date brings with him 34 years of experience in policing specially in counter terrorism tecniques and also with his experience of sdying organised crime in the US. The NIA is presently probing the terror-gangster nexus of Goldy Brar-Lawrence Bishnoi and terror threats issued by Khalistani forces- Gurpatwant Singh Pannu and organizations likes the Babbar Khalsa International, Sikhs for Justice and more.
The agency is also apearheading in investigations against the another recently banned organizaiton Popular Front of India found involved on terror blasts and attacks on RSS-BJP leaders.
Back at his home in Maharashta, his family is elated with the elevation of Date and crediting his immense struggle and challenges in shaping him as a fine officer that he is; a jewel in the crown of the NIA!
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