Senior Indian Police Service officer Amod K. Kanth hates sensationalism. For a police officer whose career spanned some of the most critical and sensitive incidents of history from 1980-1991, he could not avoid being privy to sensational incidents which he documented in personal diaries, that were more an “aide memoire” at that time since he was on duty those days. But these have now become historical sources, important enough to be documented in historical records.
Kanth’s sensational book 'Khaki in Dust Storm'—the first of his series of police diaries—documents assassination of Indira Gandhi, 1984 Delhi anti-Sikh riots, killings of Lalit Maken, Arjun Das, General A.S. Vaidya; multiple bomb blasts in Delhi and the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. Other crimes like human trafficking and drug based crimes are only some of the topics of the stories he has shared from his real life experiences.
The man in khaki was the deputy commissioner of police in central Delhi in 1984 when he was stepping out of his house on a day that has gone down in history as Delhi’s darkest moment, as dark as the Partition’s massacres. Kanth recalls how the small police control room of the Central Delhi police district got its biggest shock when a wireless operator rushed towards him after cross checking his information with the control room located near Daryaganj police station, next to the road between his house and the office.
“He spoke in an urgent and choked voice, and said that the Prime Minister madam had been shot at in her residence,” wrote Kanth . “A lingering premonition, a subconscious thought from deep within the recesses of my mind and the knowledge and experience from my days in security at the Prime Minister’s house at Safdarjung Road surfaced immediately.” I reacted, ”Was it a policeman?”
The police briefing that followed after all officers assembled in his office for discussing law and order in the city, is still considered by Kanth as the most significant meeting in his entire police career. Kanth‘s book is a unique documentation of challenges before a police officer who rises above his duties as a law enforcement officer to someone who grows to turn into a social worker and a globally celebrated cop praised by the US government for his work in combating human trafficking.
This journey wasn’t easy for a cop, yet Kanth‘s brush with emotional events like the anti-Sikh riots in the early part of his policing career had taught him to look at issues from a socio-political perspective. This ability to understand the fine contours of Indian society went on to motivate him to become one of the pioneers of “ community policing" in the country.
A book replete with facts, sensational investigations, brilliance of policing and anecdotes of hard decisions of men in khaki, Kanth gives a gratifying read in the form of the first part of police diaries, making the readers want to turn the pages once more .
Book: Khaki In Dust Storm: Communal Colours and Political Assassinations ( 1980-1991): Police Diaries Book 1
Author : Amod K Kanth
Publisher : Bloomsbury India