Pradhan Committee finds serious lapses on Gafoor’s part

December 21, 2009 07:23 pm | Updated December 16, 2016 02:57 pm IST - Nagpur

Former Union Secretary, Ram Pradhan (left) presenting administrative committee report on 26/11 Mumbai terror attack to Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Ashok Chavan. Photo: Vivek Bendre

Former Union Secretary, Ram Pradhan (left) presenting administrative committee report on 26/11 Mumbai terror attack to Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Ashok Chavan. Photo: Vivek Bendre

A high-level committee appointed by the Maharashtra government to go into the Mumbai terror strikes has found serious lapses on the part of the then Mumbai Police Commissioner Hasan Gafoor in handling the “war-like” multi-pronged attack.

However, the two-member committee did not find any serious lapses to act or react on the part of individual officers and police men of the Mumbai Police.

“There was absence of overt leadership on the part of Hasan Gafoor, the CP, and lack of visible Command and Control at the CP’s office,” said the report prepared by former Governor and Union Home Secretary R.D. Pradhan.

The report tabled by Maharashtra Home Minister R.R. Patil in the Assembly on Monday said the Committee found several lacunae in working, both within Mantralaya, the State secretariat, and the police establishment.

“Well set out procedures for handling intelligence and ’Crisis Management’ were overlooked. These require urgent attention,” Mr. Pradhan said in his note to Chief Minister Ashok Chavan presenting the report of the committee which also had as member V Balachandran, former Special Secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat.

The report said the "war-like" attack was beyond the capacity of the Mumbai Police -- for that matter of any police set up. It had to be tackled by specialised forces such as the National Security Guards.

"However, we find that the CP Mumbai did not exhibit adequate initiative in handling the multi-pronged attack. He remained at one spot near Trident Hotel throughout the operations.

"For lack of visible Command and Control at the CP's office, an impression that the police handled the operation ineffectively, was created by the public.

"Moreover several senior officers told us that those three days, the CP did not give any directions nor enquired of ongoing operations. We found that although the CP kept in touch on wireless and mobile on selective basis, several officers felt that they did not get a feeling that they were part of a team," the report said.

The committee said "we have come to the conclusion that there was absence of visible and overt leadership on the part of Hasan Gafoor, the CP".

The committee did not find any failure to act on inputs provided by the central intelligence agencies.

It had a word of praise for the then Director General of Police A N Roy, who it found that throughout the operations, he made himself available to provide information and offered help while taking care not to intrude into the functioning of Mumbai Police officers.

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