This 74-year-old retired police officer can boast of executing one of Mumbai police's most high-profile arrests in 1971 from a bar in Mapusa, Goa
This 74-year-old retired police officer can boast of executing one of Mumbai police's most high-profile arrests in 1971 from a bar in Mapusa, Goa.
Madhukar Zende arrested Charles Sobhraj, the man who killed tourists across the world during the 1970s and evaded police arrest for nearly 30 years. Sobhraj was also arrested in connection with a heist at Ashoka Hotel in early 1971.
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The cop who caught Charles Sobhraj twice (right) with outgoing ACP Isaac Bhagwan |
On Friday, Sunday MiD DAY met Zende, when he had come to bid farewell and wish luck to Issac Bhagwan, assistant commissioner of police on the eve of his retirement. Clad in a grey safari suit, still beaming with confidence, Zende slipped into nostalgia and recollected Sobhraj's sensational arrest.
It was April 6, 1986. Laying a trap in the bar, Qequiro for Sobhraj, Zende waited with his team of officers and led from the front. He got lucky and caught the serial killer by the collar. "Are you mad?" Sobhraj said, seconds after Zende had rounded him up. "No, I am not," Zende replied, "I'm the same officer who arrested you in 1971, remember?"
Hearing this Sobhraj froze and did not utter a word. He just surrendered to Zende. Zende and his team had been tracking Sobhraj from Mumbai to Goa. "The arrest of Sobhraj was the best assignment in my career," says Zende, who is now retired and lives with his son near Kora Mangala in Bengaluru.
Zende has seen Bhagwan since the day he joined the police force in 1974. "I just want to pat his back for some of the great work he has done in his career," he says, explaining his visit. Bhagwan was one of the first police officers to carry out an encounter in Mumbai. In fact, he was also instrumental in throttling the gang activities of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim during the 1980s.
