HIS PARENTS, wife and daughter were scared —thinking what all could have happened to him. But for DySP Rajesh Sahni whatever happened was part and parcel of a job, often fraught with bigger dangers and uncertainties..
That is not to say that he has completely left the Tuesday incident behind. He knows there is no running away from that, even if he wanted to. And he is not complaining. Sahni’s cell phone is constantly ringing these days– calls (some from outstation) from people, top cops, including DGP Bua Singh, ministers and other politicians patting his back for not giving up on the five youths who menacingly drove him on the bonnet of their vehicle on Tuesday evening.
But the best perhaps came from an elderly woman soon after the incident.
Margret Narayan (70) called him up and said had she been around she would have made all efforts to save him. She said she would have certainly parked her car right in front of the jeep on which Sahni was battling to save his life.
A dySP, who is soon to retire, and his wife called him up from Gwalior and applauded him for showing extraordinary courage in arresting the goons. On the family front, there was fear initially which promptly got relegated to the shadows it came from. What took them over instead was this strong feeling of pride for Sahni and what he did.
{{/usCountry}}A dySP, who is soon to retire, and his wife called him up from Gwalior and applauded him for showing extraordinary courage in arresting the goons. On the family front, there was fear initially which promptly got relegated to the shadows it came from. What took them over instead was this strong feeling of pride for Sahni and what he did.
{{/usCountry}}Sahni’s father Prem Sagar, a businessman in Patna, and his mother were among the first to appreciate their son’s heroics.
Sahni’s wife Shalini, a housewife, and his daughter Shreya, a class IV student at St Agnes’ School, are simply proud of Sahni and thank their stars that he came out of the incident unscathed. Having won the all-India debate competition twice, deputy SP Rajesh Sahni, a native of Patna, has also been a journalist and could have been a pilot in the India Air Force had he joined the force after his selection in 1990. He has also worked in the riot-hit areas of Bihar in 1993.
Before he joined police services in 1997, Sahni worked as the head of the news coordination desk of a leading news channel in Delhi since 1994. A disciplined and meritorious student at St Xaviers College, Patna, he did his BA (honours) from Patna College. His only regret remains not clearing the All India Civil Services exams, notwithstanding the officer and a gentleman that he already is.