Mandi, February 21
She is a gutsy cop, she handled a simple complaint of a labourer with tact and sensitivity and led night-long raids in Meerut and Gurgaon on January 24 that woke up India to an explosive multi-million kidney racket. Her family members, friends and relatives are euphoric over her great service to the country and feel proud that they have such a “great woman” as their family member. She is an ordinary “bahu’ of a middle-class family, who did what no other cop could do.
Meet Manzil Saini Dehal, an IPS officer of 2005 batch, currently posted as assistant superintendent of police, Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh. She has been hogging the headlines worldwide from New York Times to Austrian Herald and TV channels for weeks together.
Few in Himachal know that this “special cop” is shy and sensitive, almost a workaholic, but a devoted mother and a daughter-in-law of a Dehal family based in a small nondescript Pandoh town near here.
Taking to The Tribune on phone from Moradabad, where she was on a patrol even on a holiday, Manzil said, “The things have normalised here as the case has been handed over to the CBI-Interpol. My devotion towards my work has increased as the appreciation is making me work even harder”.
The fame and worldwide appreciation of her work in busting the kidney racket has
propelled Manzil Saini Dehal into a celebrity in her own right. But she did not take her odd-hours working schedule back home.
“I am a normal human being and get tired like others. But the police service is an odd -hour job and your family suffers. But then your family life should not be an extension of your work. I have two kids, my in-laws and my husband, a businessman by profession, spends quality time with them at home as one has to strike a balance somewhere”, Manzil said.
She said her love for her family and husband has deepened, as it was after her marriage in 2000 that she got through IPS in 2005.
In fact, Manzil was in her family way when she appeared in the civil services examinations and made it in the first attempt. She became the first married woman IPS officer in the country.
She blew the lid off in what turned out to be the country’s explosive multi-million kidney racket with vast network of kidney organ trade worldwide.
Manzil said, “We came across a simple complaint about some tout, which could have easily slipped away as any other complaint. We examined and interrogated him, who gave us leads to the Meerut kidney trade, touts and doctors in Gurgaon.
My boss, the SSP, guided us, planned raids in Meerut and Gurgaon and rest is history. Even, when my husband called me the next morning to know about my whereabouts, I told him I am on TV, she laughed.
Manzil topped MBA from Delhi School of Economics after she completed her honours in physics from St. Stephen College, New Delhi. She excelled as an athlete, when she was doing her IPS training at Hyderabad academy.
Her husband, Jaspal Dehal, who belongs to Pandoh and runs an export business, based in Noida, said, “Manzil is an extraordinary person with tremendous capacity for work. She works almost 16 hours a day.
Back in Mandi, Dehal brothers, Dr G.S Dehal, an ayurvedic doctor and the ADM Mandi, B.S Dehal said, “Manzil is a great person and they feel proud that she is married to our younger brother, Jaspal. Manzil is a cheerful person and is like any other family member”, they added.
But Manzil said it was her family and parents and God’s grace that had brought so much appreciation for my work, she added She was happy that kingpin Dr Amit Kumar and others were behind bars.
