The secret life of police informers, the men who know too much

One summer afternoon while former police inspector Shamsher Khan Pathan was in his office attending to regular complaints his senior asked him to get ready for an operation that could well be the turning point of his careerACP Vasant Dhoble is renowned for using services of informers before conducting police raidsWith a speed characteristic of fire brigade officials Pathan slipped into his uniform grabbed his service revolver and reported to his seniors in no time Fifteen policemen all armed with guns and bulletproof jackets got into two police vans and headed towards the secret missionAssistant Commissioner of Police Vasant Dhoble is wellknown for having relied on informers more than his own team before conducting raids He often sent informer Agnel Weldaris to hookah bars as a customer before raiding them in spite of the latterrsquos involvement in several robberies and assault casesAn inquisitive Pathan attempted to break the ice in the silent police van and enquired what this was all about His superior revealed that his lsquokhaas khabrirsquoinformer in Mumbai policersquos lingo had leaked a tip on a large consignment of sophisticated deadly weaponsAdvocate Dipesh Mehta who recently received extortion threats from expolice informer Ramchandra Chatri Since his teenaged days Chatri harboured a grudge against MehtaThe list included nothing less than AK47s hand grenades and other imported weapons which the Mumbai police would love to see in its own armoury There was no reason to doubt the tipoff mdash its source was an ace informer who in fact was leading the police team in a vehicle ahead Pathanrsquos curiosity knew no bounds as he moved closer to the khaas khabrirsquos convoyRamchandra Chatri an expolice informer who tried to extort money from lawyer Dipesh Mehta is now on the runHowever Pathan was disappointed when he realised who the informer was mdash an old acquaintance Recollecting his unpleasant experiences with the supposed ace informer Pathan was reminded of a wild goose chase the notsokhaas khabri had put him on to not so long ago It was for personal vengeancePathan had no choice but to burst his seniorrsquos bubble He told him how this chase could just be the informerrsquos attempt to retrieve some of his property which was usurped by the rival he was leading the police towardAlmost a decade ago Pathan and his superior would have been thought of as victims trapped in a rare incident where roles were strangely reversed and cops were used by informers for personal gainHowever now instances like these hit headlines and are more common The previouslysecret world of the police and their experiences with informers is for the world to see In the barter of favours trade secrets of both the sides face the risk of exposure And often one becomes a threat to the otherSo when Ramchandra Chatri who has been in the news for trying to extort money from Salman Khanrsquos lawyer Dipesh Mehta should have ideally been bearing the badge of an old loyal to the police he became a potential threat to the department He mastered the art of investigation in the company of the Bandra police since 15 years But in a sudden change of heart last month he decided to use his proximity to police for extortion Most surprisingly he targeted a man who facilitated a living for his family MehtaMehtarsquos family had employed Chatrirsquos father as a security guard while his mother worked as their domestic help His parents continued serving the Mehtarsquos loyally for several years but little did they know that their own son was nurturing a grudge against their employer as a teenager and was building the perfect plot for revenge Mehta had long forgotten that his mother had once got a teenaged Chatri arrested for getting involved in a brawl Chatrirsquos revenge was actually targeted at Mehtarsquos motherChatri is still at large While the police has been rendered sleepless in their attempts to nab him Chatri seems to know all their ways of catching a crook This may be the reason why till now the four traps to arrest Chatri including one where his girlfriend was involved have failed It seems like he has thrown open a challenge for the police to crack To top it all he even sends bouquets to mock themldquoThis is the reason why Chatri had developed close proximity with the cops He is giving us a tough time with the tactics he learnt from us a decaderdquo said an officer from the Bandra police station When Dhoble was used as a shield In another example of the Mumbai policersquos convoluted relationship with khabris they allegedly depended on the services of a tadipar who has graduated to become an ace informer over the past yearTwentyfiveyearold Agnel Leonard Weldaris an accused in several robbery and assault cases was externed in February 2011 But he continued to be an ace informer to the Social Service SS Branch He aided and accompanied police teams in the much talked about crackdowns on Mumbairsquos nightlife His tainted past came to light in May 2012 after he was nabbed from south Mumbai for violating the externment orderAgnel Leonard Weldaris often visited hookah bars as a guest on behalf of ACP Vasant DhobleIt then came to the fore that Agnel was sent to several bars and hookah parlours as a bogus customer before Dhoblersquos team conducted raids ldquoDhoble preferred informers than the officers from his own team There was a reason for it Many a time the policemen who were informed in advance about the raids were believed to have leaked the information to the bar and pub owners When this became a regular occurrence Dhoble eventually relied on his informers Dhoblersquos informers were more powerful than the local policerdquo says an officer from south Mumbai in whose jurisdiction Dhoble had conducted various raidsAccording to a citybased hotelier some of the informers become so close to the police officials that all the raids in the city in hotels and pubs get carried out based on their information ldquoThis leaves us with no choice but to entertain themrdquo said former hotelier Vishwanath Shetty That is the reason why four police informers who tipped off the police regarding a Bandrabased hookah bar were thrashed by the bar staff on Thursday night This incident took place after police officials raided the bar that nightAgreeing to the fact that the informers often use police resources for personal gains assistant commissioner of police Feroz Patel of the social service branch said ldquoWe are more cautious with such khabris Whenever a khabri approaches us with an input instead of verifying the tip off first we do a background check of the informant We see what work he has done for the department in the past These days we prefer tipoffs from the common man rather than khabris These are the people who call up control rooms with their individual complaints Sometime we receive complaint letters toordquoInformers land Bandra police in a soupIn an extreme misuse of ties involving the Bandra police in June last year a police informer trapped an innocent youth in a drug case The detection team of the Bandra police paid a heavy price for this error and many were even suspendedThe said police informer misled the cops about a Vakolabased youth Following his leads four policemen from Bandra barged into the boyrsquos Kalina residence early one day accusing him of drug peddling They assaulted him and hauled him to the police station The plot was hatched by the informer to help a Vakolabased man evacuate his property was had been usurped by the youth ldquoIt was the biggest blow to the cops by a khabri A classic example of how the informer uses cops for his personal vendetta The city police had taken a big lesson from this episode ldquo said an IPS level officer on the condition of anonymity