Srinagar, June 21 (IANS) Serving and retired officers in Jammu and Kashmir Thursday mourned the death of former colleague Radha Vinod Raju, calling him an ace investigator and a thorough professional.
Director General of Police K. Rajendra Kumar said Raju, an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer from the Jammu and Kashmir cadre who died in Kerala, was a multi-faceted personality.
“Honest, professionally competent, humane, lover of poetry and a good singer. It was always a pleasure to known and work with Raju,” Kumar told IANS.
Inspector General of Police Sheikh Owais remembered Raju as an ace investigator and one who always seemed to be in a hurry to help the needy.
Khwaja Bashir Ahmad, a retired senior bureaucrat, credited Raju with streamlining the state’s anti-corruption organisation.
“He worked relentlessly to streamline the police recruitment process. Officers with such high integrity, impeccable secular credentials as well as professional competence are rare to come by,” he said.
Raju served with distinction both in the Kashmir Valley and Jammu region for many years before finally becoming the head of India’s first National Investigation Agency (NIA).
Naeem Akhtar, a former bureaucrat, watched Raju’s career groom from a probationer to a commander.
“He was a human being of exceptional qualities. I lived with him in the same apartment for over two years. Though professionally very competent, he could never cast himself into the steel jacket that usually happens to police officers.”
Peer Ghulam Hassan Shah, the first director general of Jammu and Kashmir Police, expressed shock over Raju’s demise.
“He headed the first police recruitment board. He went to far flung areas like Nobra, Kishtwar, Mendhar and Paddar to recruit constables.
“He was secular, honest and competent. He earned the love and respect of those who served under or with him.”
G.M. Andrabi worked with Raju for over 30 years.
“I have no words to describe his simplicity, honesty, integrity, professional competence and above all the human qualities with which he endeared himself to everybody,” he said.
Raju, 62, died of lung complications in a Kochi hospital.
