Hemant Karkare (December 12, 1954 - November 26, 2008)

Hemant Karkare was born in 1954. Not much is known about his childhood, but he went on to attain a Bachelor of Engineering degree from Vishveshvarayya Regional Engineering in Nagpur, the largest city in central India. In 1982, he became a batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer and slowly worked his way up the ranks, receiving posts at Nanded, Akola, Thane and Bhiwandi. Then, nine years later, he was sent to a post in the Chandrapur area of the state. Finally, he ended up in Mumbai, where he acted as the deputy commissioner of police in their economic offense wing. He also worked in the research and analysis wing — the country’s external intelligence agency — out of Austria for seven years.

Hemant Karkare helped in solving the serial bomb blasts in Thane, Panvel and Vashi. In January 2008, he was named the head of the ATS after returning to the state cadre. He was credited for helping to uncover the stunning revelations that came about in the investigation of the September 29th blast in Malegaon in which three bombs exploded in Gujarat and Maharashtra of India, killing eight people and injuring 80 (two bombs were detonated in Malegaon, Maharashtra, killing seven).
Despite his credible work on the case, his work on the investigation received majorcriticism from several Hindu organizations after the ATS insinuated that Hindu groups might have been behind the attacks.

In November 2008, Hemant Karkare was leading a terrorist seize at Mumbai’s Taj Hotel after terrorists took 15 people captive — the ATS had received numerous phone calls with threats of impending explosions and terrorist acts. After entering the Taj Hotel, Hemant Karkare was hit with three bullets to the chest, and was instantly killed. Another officer, Ashok Marutirao Kamte, was also killed in a different location, Metro Cinema, that same evening. Reports said that more than 100 people in total were killed during the terrorist attacks in some 10 locations across the city. As many as 287 were wounded. He died like a hero fighting and trying to save the people of his country.

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