After 22 years, top cop Rakesh Maria returns to Mumbai blasts case

Twenty-two years after he cracked the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, life came full circle for police commissioner Rakesh Maria on Thursday.

Twenty-two years after he cracked the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, life came full circle for police commissioner Rakesh Maria on Thursday.

Policemen patrol a road leading to the residence of Yakub Memon, in Mumbai on July 30, 2015. Memon was hanged at a Nagpur jail on Thursday for his role in a series of co-ordinated attacks that killed hundreds of people in Mumbai in 1993. (AFP Photo)

Soon after the blasts, Maria, who was then the deputy commissioner of police (traffic), was handed over the charge of investigating the incident. After the registration number of a Maruti Omni car laden with AK-47s and grenades led the police to Rubina Memon,

Maria had broken open the Memons’ house in Al-Hussaini building. On Thursday, Maria was back on ground to monitor the security in the city and ensure nothing goes wrong.

Maria not only planned the bandobast, but also checking the arrangements at both possible burial places – Bada Kabarastan and Mahim. At the airport, too, the police chose to get the body out from a gate, not commonly used by many. Onlookers and vehicle owners were asked not to throng the gate.

The route — from the domestic airport to Mahim, and from Mahim to Bada Kabarastan — was planned to the minutest detail, taking security and traffic issues into consideration.

Maria, along with five joint commissioners of police and all additional commissioners of police, was on duty through the day. He visited the airport to see the preparations, and later camped at Mahim and Charni Road, till the completion of the last rites.