An officer and a gentleman

Died: Keki Dadabhoy, 74, former director general of police, Gujarat and founder inspector general of the National Security Guards (NSG) on July 4, 2009 at the Apollo Hospital in Secun-derabad following cardio-respiratory failure.

With the national flag draped across his mortal remains, Dadabhoy was given a state funeral. There was a guard of honor comprising 30 policemen and numerous floral wreaths were placed on the body as several senior policemen including the commissioner of police, Greater Hyderabad and the director general, home guards and fire services paid their last respects. The mourners included many retired and serving directors general of police, other high ranking policemen and bureaucrats, a former member of the railway board, top businessmen and almost the entire Parsi community of the twin cities who had come to bid farewell to a very popular figure.

Keki Dadabhoy: plucky policeman

A police band led the funeral cortege out of the Anjuman premises as the guard of honor marched slowly behind it. The party then boarded two buses as they accompanied the hearse to the Tower of Silence where Dadabhoy was honored with a gun salute as his body was placed in the dakhma. Incidentally, this was the second state funeral given to a Parsi from Secunderabad, the first being to politician and former member of the Rajya Sabha, Roda Mistry.

The governor of Andhra Pradesh N. D. Tiwari issued a press release condoling Dadabhoy’s death and also visited the family at their home to personally offer his condolences. "We have lost not only an outstanding professional, but a jewel amongst the community of policemen,” wrote M. K. Narayanan, national security adviser to the Prime Minister, in his condolence letter to Dadabhoy’s wife Rati. "Keki was a dear friend and a valued colleague who was the epitome of cheer and goodness,” added Nara-yanan.

Ram Nagrani, former director general of the NSG, said that Dadabhoy would be remembered by the force for all time to come. Two officers of the new NSG hub in Hyderabad also visited the family to pay their condolences. One of the mourners at the funeral, Bilkeez Latif, eminent social worker and author, and wife of the former governor of Maharashtra Idris Latif expressed her and her husband’s deep shock at his passing away.

Keki Dadabhoy (second from left) meets Indira Gandhi when he was chief of security of the Rourkela Steel Plant

Specially selected to become the first inspector general of the newly conceived NSG in 1984 he was responsible for laying the foundations of the force which is today used in VIP security duties apart from its primary focus which is on countering terrorism. To equip him for this responsibility he was specially sent on training to the United Kingdom and on his return he familiarized himself with the organizational structure of other elite forces in the world like GSG-9 of West Germany. He was also closely associated with the formation of the insignia for the NSG and was instrumental in acquiring the land required to house the buildings of the new force.

The local Press in Gujarat carried the news of Dadabhoy’s passing as did the electronic media there. While condoling the death of their former chief of police the government of Gujarat wrote: "The director general of police and the whole rank and file of the Gujarat police were shocked to receive the news of the sad demise…”

One of India’s most highly decorated policemen, he had been awarded the Indian Police Medal for Meritorious Service, the President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service, and other operational and area medals which included the Paschimi Star, Samar Seva Star and the Sangram Medal.

Only the second Parsi police officer after his mentor, the doyen of Indian policemen K. F. Rustumji, to have the distinction of being a director general both in the State as also the Government of India at the Centre, Dadabhoy had served the Indian police for 35 years. He saw active service as superintendent of police, Kutch (Bhuj) during the Indo-Pak conflict in 1965. Subsequently under Rustumji, he was responsible for the raising of the Border Security Force in Gujarat. Dadabhoy had also served in the sensitive state of Jammu and Kashmir as assistant director in the North-Western Frontier (as it was then called). Additionally he played a key role in the Central Industrial Security Force in Rourkela and the Central Reserve Police Force in New Delhi (where he was instrumental in setting up the control room in North Block).

On repatriation to his parent cadre, Gujarat, he was appointed as the managing director of the Gujarat Police Housing Corporation and in 1989 became director general of police of Gujarat. The following year he was deputed to Delhi for his final posting as director general, Civil Defence, Home Guards and Fire Services for the country.

Keki Dadabhoy, then director general of police, addressing his men at Baroda

An extrovert who mixed freely with all regardless of rank or position, Dadabhoy (actually it was his father’s first name that Keki chose to use as his surname) was an unassuming person who wore his rank and education very lightly. He had earned his BA in political science from Hyderabad’s Nizam College and thereafter appeared for the Hyderabad Police Service examination where he secured the first rank. Apart from his training abroad, Dadabhoy had trained at the National Police Academy, the Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi, and the Administrative Staff College of India, Hyderabad, among others.

His affable and amiable nature endeared him to all those who knew him. He was actively associated with the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) in Hyderabad. A lover of drama, English and Urdu poetry and Indian classical music he was a regular at all such events. President of the Poetry Society of Hyderabad Zulfe-quar Hydari commented that Dadabhoy was an "extremely articulate speaker with an inimitable style… Keki was gregarious and loved and admired by all. We at the Poetry Society will miss him very dearly.” Just a few months prior to his demise he had read the poems of his friend and colleague, Keki Daruwalla at a public forum. K. L. Watts, ex-director general of police and former adviser to the governor of Punjab reminisced how Dadabhoy, an entertaining raconteur known for his humor and wit, was invariably the life of a party.

As summed up Gulbanoo Chenoy, president of the Parsi Zoroastrian Anjuman of Secunderabad and Hyderabad, "Keki’s distinguished record in the police force brought luster to the Parsi community and his pleasing and friendly manners made him universally liked and admired.”

The popular police chief is survived by his wife Rati, daughter Tushna and son Bakhtiar.