IGP Prasanna : The man who stopped Obama’s convoy

IGP Mallikarjuna Prasanna

By Dheeraj Fartode 

Published on Feb/17/2019

NOT many are aware of an episode during the then US President Barack Obama’s visit to India in 2010. The world’s most powerful man was made to wait for 11 minutes in his car while an Indian cop took on American officials for their unwarranted interference in the US President’s security. KM Mallikarjuna Prasanna, Special Inspector General of Police of Nagpur Range, still continues to work with the same pride, wearing his patriotism on the sleeve.

“Had they (Americans) deployed their personnel for area security, then the message would have been Indians are unable to protect VIPs in their nation,” recounted Prasanna on the episode that is one of the highlights of his distinguished career of a skillful investigator.

The story of the IPS officer of 2000 batch is worth a film. In fact, a movie (Nagarjun-starrer ‘Officer’) has already been made by Ram Gopal Verma last year. His real life script also has a protagonist leaving a cushy MNC job in a split-second with only one motive, to serve the nation, cracking the UPSC exam, joining the police force and solving high profile cases and then the Obama episode.

Prasanna recollected that incident while talking to ‘The Hitavada’ in an extensive interview. “I was the second in-charge of police bandobast at St Xavier’s premises where President Obama was scheduled to visit on November 7, 2010. As per the briefing, Mumbai Police were tasked for area security including rooftops while US security agents were assigned for proximate security of Obama. However, US security agents deployed their door frame in the building of St. Xavier’s a day before Obama’s visit. I took a strong objection and asked the US personnel to remove it,” the tough cop said.

At around 10.30 am, Prasanna noticed US snipers were deployed on the towers of nearby building. As this was the violation of protocol, Prasanna took out his weapon and asked the US personnel to leave the premises. The US snipers trained their weapons at Prasanna and as matters escalated he promptly alerted then Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjeev Dayal.

Dayal immediately rushed to the spot and talked to Prasanna and a top ranked US security personnel. Meantime, President Obama boarded the vehicle but Dayal did not allow the cavalcade to proceed till the matter was sorted out. Prasanna then took a team of armed personnel of QRT and brought down teams of US snipers from all the towers at St Xavier’s.

Prasanna’s career is a gritty story of determination, risks, single-minded pursuit and courage that “is in plenty since birth,” he said as matter of fact. Born on October 25, 1973 in a hilly town Chikmagalur of Karnataka state, Prasanna was always an avid reader since childhood. “There were thousands of books in the shelves of my father and I had finished reading all of those by the age of sixteen,” said Prasanna.

Members of his family and extended family were all teachers. However, he opted for B.Sc in Dairy Technology. After getting a job as Project Engineer in a MNC, Prasanna shifted to Delhi in 1995, where he realised that private jobs were made only to maximise profits. His instincts were continuously prodding him to do something for society.

One day, on way to Ludhiana in train, Prasanna met a co-passenger who had cleared final examination of UPSC. The discussion lasted for an hour and it proved to be life changing. After alighting at Ludhiana, Prasanna telephoned his boss to say he was resigning from the job. Same thing he told to his parents and cited a reason – he wanted to prepare for Civil Services. He returned to Delhi and travelled to home town the very next day.

Prasanna contacted JSSTICE, a renowned institute for preparation of UPSC in Bangalore where the Director asked him to clear preliminary examination of UPSC if he wanted admission. Without any coaching, he cleared Prelims and got the admission in year 1997. He cracked UPSC in 1999.

During his 18-year, Prasanna cracked many high-profile cases, conducted highly sensitive elections, designed Cyber Security Policy for the State and took path-breaking decisions on field.

While serving as Additional CP of Mumbai Crime Branch, Prasanna carried out many operations against gangsters and terrorists. More than 25 modules of underworld were arrested during his stint. While talking to the IGP, one cannot miss his confidence of being a master of crime and policing. He does not believes in statistics. “My belief is that ground work should matter the most. What people are feeling on the ground needs to be understood as it is the critical factor,” Prasanna commented.

“Investigation and detection is my domain. I need just a small clue to open any case,” he added. Challenges are not new for Prasanna. After initial posting in Gadchiroli, Prasanna took charge as Superintendent of Police (SP) of Sindhudurg district in 2005. His first posting tested his caliber as a police officer. Prasanna smoothly handled a fierce political battle between Shiv Sena and Narayan Rane during by-poll to Malwan Assembly seat.

“The election was announced within two months of my joining as SP Sindhudurg. Political leaders tried to blunt the police force but our will prevailed and election was held peacefully,” he recalled his first year in the field. Another prominent case that shot Prasanna into limelight was the investigation of a fake encounter case in Mumbai. In 2008, Prasanna was appointed as the head of Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the Bombay High Court for probing fake encounter of Ramnarayan Gupta alias Lakhan Bhaiyya, a suspected aide of gangster Chhota Rajan.

Prasanna did his job without any fear and tabled the final report before the HC with fool-proof evidence. On its basis the HC awarded life imprisonment to 13 policemen and eight others. The case revealed that Bhaiyya was picked up by Pradeep Sharma’s (who has more than 100 encounters to his name) team from Vashi along with Anil Bheda and later eliminated the same evening in the encounter near Nana Nani Park at Versova in Western suburb in Mumbai.

“For me heading the SIT was a ‘Dharmasankat’ as the policemen and officers had worked with me on several cases,” he said.

Voracious reading has helped him a lot in sharpening his investigation skills. While serving as SP of Sindhudurg district, he received an information that a police constable was killed in a road accident at around 11 pm. Prasanna immediately drove to the spot and after observing the crime scene told his sub-ordinates that it was a case of murder.

The crime scene was like an ordinary accident spot but Prasanna’s gut feeling made him investigate the case that led to arrest of a Mumbai man. In fact, the arrest also uncovered two earlier undetected murders the accused had committed.