Book Publication
KHAKI ON BROKEN WINGS
In Khaki on Broken Wings, the second volume of the bestselling Police Diaries series, former Director General of Police Amod K. Kanth untangles some of the most sensational and heinous crimes that dominated national headlines. Deploying his deep knowledge of real-world crimes committed by the rich and the powerful, Kanth lays bare the loopholes within the criminal justice system, comprising the police, whose investigations are crucial to any prosecution, the courts and lawyers and the prison and correctional services, which influential criminals exploit ruthlessly. In the Jessica Lal murder case, despite compelling evidence gathered by the police, Kanth shows how the court judgement came close to pronouncing ‘No one killed Jessica’ to protect a powerful politician’s son. In the 1999 Delhi hit and run case, popularly known as the BMW case, he describes how a highly decorated admiral’s family, joined by top lawyers, planted a bogus witness, who became central to the case and whose testimony almost dictated the judicial outcomes. He recounts how ‘Bikini Killer’ Charles Sobhraj managed a sensational escape from the high security Tihar Jail in Delhi. Kanth also narrates the story of the mafia lord Romesh Sharma terrorising his targets to extort properties worth hundreds of crores and thwarting investigations using his access to political and corporate powers. Kanth passionately argues for the radical restructuring of the criminal justice system so that the police and the justice system are able to protect the poor, the needy and the helpless instead of being subservient to the rich and the powerful
KHAKI IN DUST STORMS
Khaki in Dust Storm is a gripping story of immersive investigations led by the celebrated police officer Amod K. Kanth who found himself at the vortex of India’s tumultuous period of the 1980s and early 1990s. An era of dramatic crime, assassinations and terrorism, this period witnessed the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984 and the horrific riots that followed; the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi; the murder of Lalit Maken and General Vaidya; public attacks by terrorists and bloodbaths at the peak of the Khalistani militancy; India’s first-ever organised mass explosions through improvised electronic device in 1985, popularly known as ‘transistor bombs’; and the growing influence of drug abuse and financial frauds. Leading into the minefield of these most sensational crime investigations that rocked India, he reveals in this book facts, stories and anecdotes that have hitherto remained outside the public discourse. He pieces together the details, narrates behind-the-scene manoeuvres, and carefully constructs the psyche of the perpetrators and the backdrop, weaving together a fantastic and powerful tale. This is also a story of a cathartic evolution of a police officer who, after landing in the coveted Indian Police Service, finds his dreams challenged and confined to the restricted role in the face of India’s myopic conventional policing. This resulted in his eventual metamorphosis, overwhelmed by the need to search for a wider and transformative perspective in policing that could lay the groundwork for more expanded and gratifying interactions between the police and the community.