The school would come up in Pune in a couple of months and is part of measures announced after the gruesome terrorist attack to strengthen the state police’s intelligence machinery, Director-General of Police A N Roy told The Indian Express on Wednesday, the eve of the second anniversary of the blasts. Officials said the school was expected to be the second such in the country after the one in Andhra Pradesh.
The blasts, which killed 188 people and injured hundreds more, were viewed as a complete failure of intelligence agencies in the light of a large haul of arms and ammunition in Aurangabad shortly before and was believed to be linked to the attack. In the aftermath of 7/11, the government had announced that 50 per cent of the cadre in the State Intelligence Department would be recruited as dedicated intelligence officers who would retire from the SID itself.
“A great deal of importance has been placed on improving the intelligence machinery of the state. The move to introduce a 50 per cent recruitment of dedicated intelligence officers to the state’s intelligence cadre is underway. The recruitment of head constables and assistant sub-inspectors is under the Commissioner of Intelligence, and this is currently on in full swing. These recruitments will be completed in a couple of months. The recruitments of assistant police inspectors and higher ranks will be conducted by the Maharashtra Public Service Commission, and will take longer,” said Roy.
Elaborating on the training that this ‘exclusive cadre’ would receive, the DGP said that a special school was being established in Pune to complement the existing Special Branch training school in Mumbai’s Dadar area.
“These dedicated intelligence officers will require special training, unlike the routine training in law and order and crime investigation. For this purpose, a special intelligence training school will soon open in Pune. The premises is ready and the school will open its doors to the new dedicated cadre as soon as the recruitments are done.
Detailed planning has gone into this process, and training modules along the lines of those given by the Intelligence Bureau will be imparted at the Pune training facility,” said Roy.
Asked about the progress of the 7/11 trial, Roy said, “The case has been chargesheeted and the trial had begun. However, after some of the accused filed an application, the trial has been stayed by the Supreme Court. However, the matter is to come up for hearing very soon.”
Thirteen people have been arrested and charged under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in connection with the blasts. But the Supreme Court stayed the trial in March as a bench agreed to examine the constitutional validity of a specific part of MCOCA that refers to “insurgency” after it was raised by Zameer Ahmed Latifur Rehman, one of the 13 accused.