Of late, the present police administration in the city of Mumbai
The person referred to is Arvind Patwardhan who had served the police with rare distinction in not too distant a past.
Patwardhan came from humble beginnings. He had lost his father when he was very young and therefore he and his younger brother were brought up by their widow mother in the house of their maternal uncle who was a police prosecutor at Kolhapur
After he graduated in science, he joined the police as a sub-inspector when the administration recruited graduates for the job and after an initial training of a short duration, posted them in Mumbai. This was some time in 1948. Soon after we had won our independence from the British. In due course he also graduated in law on his own and had further training at the police training college at Nasik
Soon after he was posted in Mumbai and had been provided residential quarters, he decided upon bringing over his mother and younger brother for his education under his watchful eye. Unfortunately the brother developed truancy and hence the mother decided to take him back to Kolhapur
He was, however, extremely committed to his job and had made investigations of frauds in Banks and other corporate bodies - his speciality in the C.I.D. where he spent most of his tenure. He was also put in charge of the police computer division when they first started computerization of police working in the city,
He led the life of a real karma yogi and never expected any reward for the work he was doing though he spent almost 18 hours every day in the work entrusted to him and thousands knocked on his door for help in all sort of police matters in which he was adept.
He had simple habits and mostly ate one meal a day and that too when he was totally free of visitors at the Sardar Graha, opposite the office of the Police Commissioner and the C.I.D. where Lokmanya Tilak used to stay when in the city.
He slept on a bare mat and did not have any belongings except a few books and a pair of suits of clothes for daily necessity.
He was decorated with both the President’s Police Medal for meritorious service and the President’s Police and Fire Services Medal for distinguished service and had also earned the Chief Minister’s Medal for the best investigation of a year. He also rose to the rank of the Dy. Commissioner of Police prior to his honorable retirement.
He was a good penman and had scripted two books namely “Me Mumbaicha Police” and “Me Mumbaicha Inspector” and was also editing the police magazine brought out by the State Police for a long time.
He was also called upon to give talks on detection of frauds at various banking institutes and other such professional bodies and did so unremittingly. On his retirement, he was also appointed by a bank as their legal advisor and served them too with distinction almost till his late age and disablement, without expecting any reward or gain for himself.
Needless to say that he was totally free of corrupt practices and being used to a life of thrift, used to donate large sums to worthy causes and left a large part of his savings in the form of National Savings certificates for posterity.
It is only to be hoped that those policemen visiting The Yoga Institute would draw inspiration from the life of this illustrious son of India
- Contributions by Amrut Desai, retired Asstt, Commr. of Police, Mumbai and a Sadhak of The Yoga Institute.
