 "<b>Newsmaker:</b> Ahmed Javed")
Known as a taskmaster and a 'no-nonsense officer', at his first press briefing he said there is always a scope for improvement in anything a human does. His priorities, he said, included the safety of women and children, apart from maintaining law and order.
Javed was careful about commenting on the Sheena Bora murder case. It is still not clear who is going to supervise this: the new police commissioner or the new director general of home guards, Rakesh Maria. But what he said was interesting: that the interrogation phase in the case is over, some people have been sent to judicial custody (which usually means the police has gathered enough evidence to build its case) and that the chargesheet will be drawn up as soon as possible. The chargesheet is the crucial element in the case for it will indicate the contours of the criminality and the sections under which the charged individuals are going to be tried. It does seem rather odd that the same person who pursues and files a chargesheet will not follow the case to its logical conclusion. But it is also true that given India's long-drawn judicial system this can happen.
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As police commissioner of Navi Mumbai (2010-2012), Javed introduced a small but significant reform in policing. He displayed his mobile number on a board in all the police stations in his area. Three other numbers of station colleagues were also displayed. This served two purposes: People felt the police was communicative and levels of frustration with the keepers of the law went down; and policemen also knew that not only were they on call but also their boss. This tended to make them a little more alert, a bit more responsive, because they knew if complainants did not get them, they had the option of calling the police commissioner himself.
Javed told a questioner that for the first couple of weeks he was plagued with phone calls at all hours. But the number came down as the station itself learnt to become responsive.
From an aristocratic Lucknow family and an alumnus of Delhi's St Stephen's College, Javed served in the Delhi Police between 1983 and 1985. This was the period that Sikh militancy was at its height. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had just been assassinated and Delhi was on a boil. It is during those days that Javed cut his teeth on policing issues related to terrorism.
After being superintendent of police in Buldhana and Nanded districts, Ahmed was posted in Mumbai as deputy commissioner (intelligence).
After serving in various other positions, Ahmed returned to Mumbai in early 2000, first taking charge as additional commissioner of the central region and later of the southern region. In 2002, he became the first Muslim to be the city's joint commissioner (law and order), handling it for another three years. He successfully handled the situation after the city was rocked by bomb blasts between this period in Jhaveri Bazar and Gateway of India. Subsequently, he was promoted as additional director-general, first with the state reserve police force and then at state police headquarters, in charge of establishment and law and order.
Passionate about wearing a khadi cotton uniform, Javed is also often spotted at 'Page 3' parties. He takes a token salary of Rs 1 and donates the rest to the police fund. And, he likes to play billiards.