MUMBAI, Nov 18: Over 98 days after Gulshan Kumar's murder, the investigating officer, police inspector Arjun Singh Bagdi, has now come to share the dead man's name, pressed on him by his colleagues and peers. He is popularly called Gulshan Bagdi or chief IO, as there are over 200 cops working with him on the case.

Bagdi is not alone. He is part of an exclusive club whose members have acquired nicknames linked with their investigations.

They are some of the cops at the crime branch who have been associated with the investigations of some of the most talked about cases in recent times. And they pay a small price by acquiring a tag of the names of the cases under their purview, with their own.

Police inspector Teja Chavan is another one. Chavan is an investigating officer in the Datta Samant killing. Soon after the incident on January 16 this year, a crack team was formed which was led by Chavan. Within a week after the investigations got under way, Chavan's colleagues began calling him Kamgar Aghadi Chavan, Kamgar Aghadi, being the name of Samant's union.

Police inspector, Shankar Gopal Mahadik, the investigating officer of the multi-crore shoe scam case is a classic example of the crime branch's fetish for name-change. Mahadik who had been on the case since October last year, now finds that his initials have acquired a fresh significance - Shoe Ghotala Mahadik.

Similarly, assistant police inspector Vasant Dhoble, who shot to fame with a police encounter, after having shot dead Javed Fawda in an encounter in August this year, finds himself prominently recognised as Fawda Dhoble.

Then again, the crime branch does not discriminate between the sexes or ranks. Woman sub inspector Vijaya Hiremath, attached to Unit-II of the crime branch, was transferred to crime branch from the D B Marg police station.Here she was investigating the murder of poultry farm owner, Amirullah Khan alias Murgiwallah, who was killed by Abu Salem men in December 1995. The case was transferred with Vijaya's transfer. The case was cracked early this year, but not before bestowing Vijaya with an appropriate name.

Vijaya's senior still fondly mentions her as Murgiwalla Vijaya. Ditto for a police constable, Suresh Patil, attached to the unit V, who is addressed as Bullet Patil. This, because he zooms around on a Yamaha motorbike.

Names stick with associations with certain units as well. Police inspector Subhash Salvi, who has been with the modus operandi bureau (MOB) for umpteen years has lost his first name to the bureau, for he is now known as MoB Salvi.

Also, as is common, name tags also stick with physical traits of the officers. Sub-inspector Narendra Singh's case is one such. He is the liaison officer of Joint Commissioner of Police, crime, Ranjit Singh Sharma. Owing to his bulk, Singh is bitchily known as `Mota' Singh.

Police inspector, crime, Iqbal Shaikh of the Azad Maidan police station is yet another example. He is not known so much for his crime detection prowess, as he is more into organising sports and other extra-curricular events for the force. Sports Shaikh was the name most apt for him.There is only one exception. An entire group in crime branch is given a nickname by an IPS officer for the reason best known to him. Unit-V of the branch is known as the Arun Gawli Unit.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.