26/11 hero Sadanand Date takes charge as Maharashtra DGP
Senior IPS officer and 26/11 terror attack hero Sadanand Vasant Date on Saturday took charge as Director General of Maharashtra Police.
He was heading the National Investigation Agency (NIA) till recently before being repatriated to his home cadre on the request of the Maharashtra Government.
The 1990-batch officer was appointed as DGP on December 31.
Date, 59, accepted the charge from Rashmi Shukla, the first woman DGP of Maharashtra, who retired on Saturday, at the state police headquarters.
He will have a tenure of two years as the head of the over 2 lakh-strong Maharashtra police force.
Known as an upright officer, Date was serving in Mumbai as Additional Commissioner of Police (Central Region) when Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists from Pakistan attacked multiple locations in the city on November 26, 2008.
He led a police team that pinned down terrorists Ajmal Kasab and Abu Ismail on the rooftop of Cama Hospital in south Mumbai.
Despite being severely injured by grenade splinters, Date continued to engage the terrorists.
He was subsequently honoured with the President’s Police Medal for Gallantry.
He has also served as Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief, the first commissioner of police in Mira-Bhayandar-Vasai-Virar, and a Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) and Crime in Mumbai.
Date has also served as a DIG in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and IG (Operations) in the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).
He holds a doctorate in economic offences from Pune University.
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Growing up in Pune, he once sold newspapers owing to the financial hardship his family suffered.
Despite poverty, he was a high-performing student, topping BCom and ICWA examinations before clearing the UPSC examination.
In 2005, he received the Humphrey Fellowship and studied `Economic Crime and Organised Crime and its Nature.’
Date has also penned a Marathi book, “Varditlya Mansachya Nondi” (Notes of a man in uniform), which is about his experiences in the police force.
