The two-way street between Reliance and the Mumbai police

Altamount Road in south Mumbai, with its green canopy and elegant bungalows, is often referred to as India's Billionaires' Row. Looming over it is the 27-storey Antilia, the second most expensive house in the world and the family home of Mukhesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries Limited and the wealthiest man in India.

On February 25, Ambani suffered a security scare when a dusty SUV, with a fake number plate, a threatening note and 20 gelatin sticks, was found parked just 350 metres away from Antilia. In March, the case was handed over from the local police to the National Investigation Agency, which, over the course of its probe, uncovered an alleged extortion conspiracy carried out by Mumbai police personnel who tried to cover their tracks by committing murder.

In September, NIA filed a chargesheet naming four dismissed Mumbai police personnel and a retired assistant commissioner of police among the 10 accused.

The incident was an embarrassment for the Mumbai police, but equally worrying for the police force is that it’s become a hunting ground for RIL recruiters.

A sudden request

The Mumbai police has long had a curious relationship with RIL. On one hand, RIL makes generous and regular donations to Mumbai’s police force and on the other, there are regular clashes and disagreements over the security arrangements made for Ambani.

After the Ambanis were threatened by the terrorist group Indian Mujahideen in 2013, the central government had conducted a threat perception assessment and provided Mukesh Ambani and his wife Nita Ambani Z-category and Y-category security respectively. Both categories entitle them to armed guards deputed from the Central Reserve Police Force, personal security officers, and a convoy of vehicles drawn from both the family’s private fleet of 49 vehicles and 75 drivers, as well as that of the Mumbai police. Additional cover to the family when they travel within and outside the city is provided by the Mumbai police. The Ambanis pay both the central government and the Mumbai police for this protection.

In November last year, RIL wrote to the Mumbai police seeking enhanced protection for seven members of Ambani’s family and Ambani’s youngest son Anant’s girlfriend. In the letter, the company claimed the Ambanis had faced new threats to its security from the ongoing farmers’ protest, and mentioned the damage caused to 1,500 cell towers owned by Reliance Jio Infocomm in Punjab by protesting farmers as well as a protest by farmers in Maharashtra’s Raigad district in January 2020. RIL also reminded the police of numerous instances of protesters burning effigies of Mukesh Ambani and the threat issued to him in 2013 by Indian Mujahideen.

RIL’s request for more police protection was seen as unusual by the Mumbai police since it had not received any reports that the agitating farmers posed a threat to the Ambani family.

Sources with knowledge of RIL’s letter said that it was worded vaguely. “RIL asked for enhanced protection as we deemed appropriate,” said a source in the Mumbai police. It was only after the police asked RIL for a specific number that RIL said at least 40 policemen were required, said a senior police official.

In his statement to NIA, a top executive at Reliance Global Corporate Security, which is in charge of the security at all of RIL’s properties and campuses, said that until the explosives-laden car was discovered near Antilia, the most recent threats received by the Ambani family from “various quarters” were “all related to the farmers protest that began in October 2020”.

Driving a point home

While the Mumbai police’s top officials considered RIL’s request, the company donated 20 high-end SUVs to the department as part of a corporate social responsibility initiative.

On December 8, 2020, the then commissioner of Mumbai police Param Bir Singh wrote to the Maharashtra home department, seeking approval to use 10 Morris Garage Gloster cars and 10 Mahindra XUV500 cars that his department had received from RIL. An MG Gloster costs between Rs 29 lakh and Rs 36 lakh. The Mahindra XUV500 is available in four different variants. The cheapest begins at Rs 14.13 lakh and the most expensive is priced at Rs 18.75 lakh.

The price tag of the MG Gloster easily exceeded the budget that the Maharashtra government’s vehicle policy review committee has laid out for official vehicles.

“For officers of the rank of director general of police and additional director general of police, the budget ranges between Rs 12 lakh and Rs 15 lakh,” said a Maharashtra police official.

A government resolution issued on July 28, 2020, capped the vehicle budget for Maharashtra’s chief secretary at Rs 15 lakh, which is approximately half the cost of a MG Gloster.

According to documents seen by this reporter, the home department replied to Singh’s letter on January 5 this year, informing him that it had approved RIL's gift of the high-end SUVs and cleared their use. The 10 XUV500s and one MG Gloster were set aside for use in security convoys of other VIPs and dignitaries visiting Mumbai, said senior Mumbai police officials. RIL retained three MG Glosters for use in the Ambani family’s security convoy.

In an unusual move, Singh and five joint commissioners of the Mumbai police traded in the cars provided to them by the state government for the remaining six MG Glosters.

Three Indian Police Service officers confirmed that Singh had been told that top officials using cars donated by RIL would send a wrong message to both the rest of the police force and to citizens. However, Singh allegedly dismissed these concerns.

At the Mumbai police headquarters in Crawford Market, the shiny new MG Glosters stood out among the Mahindra Boleros, Mahindra TUV 300s, Maruti Ertigas and Toyota Innovas used by other officials and police stations.

There is nothing unusual about corporate houses and wealthy actors donating vehicles to the police. RIL and other industrial houses and automobile manufacturers have a history of doing so. However, the use of such vehicles by the chief of a police force is without precedent.

“When vehicles are donated to the police, it is understood that they will be used either to serve the people directly as patrol vehicles or form part of security convoys. But not even at a district headquarters does the superintendent of police reserve a donated car for himself. It just doesn’t look good,” said a senior Maharashtra police official.

From pricey rides to a ‘terror’ plot

Approximately a week after RIL’s gift to the Mumbai police had been approved, the first batch of additional police personnel were deployed to provide close proximate security to the following: Mukesh and Nita Ambani; their children, Akash, Isha and Anant; Shloka Mehta and Anand Piramal (Akash and Isha’s spouses respectively); Anant’s girlfriend Radhika Merchant; and matriarch Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani. Although RIL had requested 40 police personnel be deployed at once, the police ignored this request, senior officials said.

Usually, security cover is provided by Mumbai police’s protection and security branch. Since the department had no one to spare at the time, additional security personnel for the Ambanis were drawn from the local arms division, the police’s 12,000-strong reserve force and controller of its armoury.

When reached for a comment, a Reliance Industries spokesperson said, “As far as threat perceptions are concerned, they are assessed by government agencies and we have no information on the basis of their decision.”

Meanwhile, the Mumbai police’s pricey new rides were drawing the attention of the state cabinet. On February 19, Maharashtra’s finance minister Ajit Pawar publicly delivered a warning to police officers against “using high-end cars provided by businessmen”.

Speaking at an event organised by the Pune police, Pawar told journalists he disapproved of the way the new vehicles were being used by senior Mumbai police officers.

“Using vehicles provided by businessmen while on duty is not right. People are watching us. We have to work in a way that people believe in us,” he was quoted as saying in the Indian Express.

The next day, Singh and his five subordinates sent their RIL-donated vehicles to the motor transport section’s garage in Nagpada, in central Mumbai. (They have since been drafted into VIP security detail, according to three IPS officials.)

Five days later, on February 25, a senior Reliance GCS executive noticed a “suspicious” SUV near Antilia. In his statement to the NIA, which was included in the chargesheet submitted in September this year, the executive said, “A clean number plate on an otherwise dusty vehicle drew my attention and after reading the registration number, I realised that the last four digits of registration number...on the said vehicle resembled the registration numbers allotted by the RTO for the convoy vehicles used by security entourage of the Ambani family members.”

The security team alerted the police and 20 gelatin sticks and a threatening letter were found in the SUV. According to the NIA, assistant police inspector Sachin Waze had placed the gelatin sticks and the note in the vehicle in order to extort money from the Ambanis. Waze, who was later dismissed, was the first investigating officer in the bomb scare case before it was handed over to the Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad and then the NIA.

Keeping the Ambanis safe

In its chargesheet, the NIA has alleged that in addition to placing the gelatin sticks, Waze, police constable Vinayak Shinde, assistant police inspector Riyazuddin Kazi, police inspector Sunil Mane (all four of whom were since dismissed), retired assistant commissioner of police Pradeep Sharma, and five other men were involved in the murder of Thane resident Mansukh Hiren, the owner of an automobiles accessories shop. Hiren, from whom Waze had borrowed the SUV, was allegedly killed because he refused to take the fall when Waze’s plans of extortion unravelled.

The NIA’s chargesheet also details the full extent of RIL and the Ambani family’s security cover. One of the witnesses in the chargesheet is a 22-year veteran of the Indian Army’s elite para special forces, who was trained in counter-insurgency, and now heads up RIL’s security.
In his statement to the NIA, he explained that Elite Protection Group (EPG), a division of Reliance GCS, secures Antilia. EPG is staffed by around 300 personnel comprising retired army and paramilitary personnel with prior experience of working in the special protection group, which protects the prime minister, former prime ministers, and their immediate family members.

One team of more than 150 EPG personnel secure Antilia while another team of more than 100 personnel, drawn from the SPG, protect the Ambani family. Working in shifts, between 50 and 60 personnel secure both the premises and members of the Ambani family at any given time. The executive told NIA he personally vets each person drafted in to protect the Ambani family and secure Antilia.

The chosen men undergo specialised training in the United States of America and Israel, and are provided free accommodation, good meals as well as welfare measures which ensure a “high degree of loyalty and job satisfaction”. The attrition rate is less than two percent, according to the Reliance GCS executive.

So, why does India’s wealthiest individual require added protection from the Mumbai police?

A source familiar with VIP security explained that police personnel perform a vital role in liaising with the local police department.

“A lot of minor security issues can crop up on a daily basis with relation to traffic passing through Altamount Road (where Antilia is located) or vehicles being parked in the vicinity of Antilia or with regard to seeking permissions from the police,” they said. “During such occasions, it always helps to have someone on hand who can have a word with the local police station and sort out these situations.”

In 2019, Mumbai-based chartered accountant Himanshu Agarwal filed a public interest litigation in the Bombay High Court, challenging the security provided to the Ambanis. His petition, which contained some factual inaccuracies, contended that the Ambanis “can afford private security” and that “public money is being wasted on the security of private persons when there is shortage of police personnel for maintaining law and order”.

The Ambanis’ legal counsel had argued his clients required the highest levels of security and that they were “paying and willing to pay cost for their security”.

The high court dismissed Agarwal’s PIL in December 2019. A bench of Justices Surendra P Tavade and Ranjit More noted the previous threat by the Indian Mujahideen and also noted the “substantial impact” of RIL’s revenue on India’s gross domestic product. The court ruled that the Mumbai police had “no option” but to ensure that the Ambanis were provided the highest security “irrespective of whether any individual or any authority is convinced about the existence or otherwise of real threat to their life or liberty”.

Agarwal filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court, challenging the high court’s order. His petition was dismissed in October 2020.

A mini exodus

This year, 10 constables – all of whom were assigned to provide close protection to the Ambani family – resigned from the Mumbai police to join RIL. They are Manoj Bochare, Abhijeet Sanmukh, Sangram Patil, Sunil Giri, Mayur Mukul, Rupesh Chaughule, Suresh Sangale, Deepak Patil, Nilesh Patil and Vinayak Nalage.

Newslaundry asked Mumbai police commissioner Hemant Nagrale about this mini exodus.

“What can I comment?” he said. “It’s their personal choice.”

On paper, a job with the police comes with benefits and stability, which are expected to deter personnel from leaving. “Resigning from the police department means forgoing increments, promotions, pension and life and health insurance cover for the employee and his family,” said a senior police official. Additionally, the process of quitting can be time-consuming, particularly if a policeman served in a sensitive post.

Yet none of these factors have prevented a steady stream of police personnel from leaving the Mumbai police to join RIL over the years.

The 10 constables who left the Mumbai police to join RIL this year includes a wrestler who, in his exit interview, is learned to have told senior officials that he would have considered rejecting RIL’s offer if the Maharashtra police had schemes to directly appoint athletes to the rank of deputy superintendent of police (like Assam and Punjab police do). However, in the absence of such an incentive, RIL’s offer was too good to refuse, he told his superiors.

“Apart from a salary raise, RIL had offered to sponsor his training. It also offered to take him off security duties and focus only on competing. He readily agreed,” said an official who spoke to the ex-policeman about his decision.

Sources in the Mumbai police said RIL offered the 10 policemen salaries of Rs 80,000, which is a massive raise from their police salary of Rs 35,000.

“All of them were offered jobs because they are quite young, fit and agile. Only one of them had completed 20 years in the police force,” said the source.

The department did not stand in their way when they resigned. “Why would we stop anyone from leaving for a better job and better standard of living? Working for RIL comes with many benefits and perks. Employees also get access to the firm’s health and education facilities,” said another official.

A Reliance Industries spokesperson said, “Reliance Industries Limited has been hiring retired central armed paramilitary forces and ex-servicemen and ex-policemen for taking care of security of its assets across the country as well as senior officials for over three decades now. We have been hiring them for their disciplined and dedicated approach.”

Some in the Mumbai police are worried about what it means for the police force to lose so many of its personnel to one wealthy protectee. “By continuing to offer jobs to our people, RIL gets access to our protection and security strategies and tactics. They find out how we train, what weapons and technology we use and can easily implement our practices,” said the official.

Unable to hold on to employees and stung by the alleged terror, extortion and murder conspiracy carried out by Waze and other officers, the Mumbai police finds itself in a difficult situation. “We cannot stop everyone from leaving for better prospects, but maybe we need to start thinking about ways to at least retain our best talent,” said an official.

Former police commissioner of Mumbai Param Bir Singh has been contacted for his comments. This article will be updated if he responds.