Retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, Rajesh Pandey, one of the founding members of the Special Task Force (STF) of the Uttar Pradesh Police, has nudged cops to pen their memoirs.
STF was constituted in the 90s when organised crime was plausibly at its peak in UP especially in the Eastern UP region.
Pandey, whose book ‘Operation Bazooka’ was released last year, recounts his experience of dealing and neutralizing top criminals and crime syndicates in UP while he was in police service.
While participating in a live discussion at a book festival in Lucknow yesterday, he lamented that most people still nursed a lot of mistrust of police department despite the cops performing at their best.
“The trust deficit could be assuaged to a large extent if the police officials start writing their memoirs, which would provide an authentic glimpse into the internal working of the police and that the challenges that they face on duty,” he noted.
He referred to books written by former top cops such as ‘Biting the Bullet’ by Ajai Raj Sharma and ‘Let Me Say it Now’ by Rakesh Maria to buttress his point about a handful of decorated cops taking the path less travelled by retired Indian men in khaki.
Meanwhile, Pandey has written another book even as he mentioned that he remains a policeman at heart and was not a quintessential writer or an academician.
“It is difficult for me to get into the skin of a writer. At best, I can recall incidents and then would need someone to jot down these reminisces for editing and putting contents in a cohesive readable manner,” he smiled when prodded by the chat moderator.
To another question, he averred that with the advent of modern technologies and surveillance techniques, the police are better equipped to deal with organised crimes, and the virtual free run that the criminal gangs enjoyed during the 90s is unthinkable today.