Bombay Police: Father-son duo who went down in history as star detectives

Mir Abdul Ali, Bombay Police. (Image source: Adam, H.L. (1908) Oriental Crime, T. Werner Laurie, p. 370−371, via Wikimedia Commons)

Mumbai Police is famously referred to as the Scotland Yard of India, to highlight its efficiency. The presence of Bollywood, underworld, and being the commercial hub of the country allows the police force an unrivalled spotlight. It has also seen periods of crisis due to corruption, infighting and political slugfest. But its image of a professional and committed police force has been long in the making. Legendary officers like Sir Frank Souter, Patrick Kelly, S.M. Edwardes, R.H. Vincent, Khan Bahadur K.J. Petigara and others laid down a rich tradition in colonial India that was followed after Independence.

In the late 19th and 20th century, the fame of its officers was such that any major crime outside Bombay (now Mumbai) that remained unsolved for long, meant that there would be a demand for detectives from Bombay Police to be summoned. And two of its most famous and sought-after native detectives were the father-son duo of Khan Bahadur Mir Akbar Ali and Khan Bahadur Sirdar Mir Abdul Ali, who cumulatively served the Bombay Police for over 70 years.

They hailed from the village of Manchar in Pune district where they had hereditary land. Mir Akbar Ali came to Bombay for employment, as the income from agriculture was not enough to take care of the family. He joined Bombay Police in September 1831, and his knowledge of Marathi and Hindustani distinguished him from other native recruits who were mostly illiterate. Very quickly he built up a web of informers and became minutely acquainted with the city’s localities. At that time the population of Bombay was still under 250,000. In 1840, Mir Akbar Ali was sent to Aden after it became a British territory to be a part of its new police force.

By dint of his hard work, he scaled every possible rank that a native could achieve. In 1852, he became a Jamadar, followed by Subedar Major for his role in quelling the 1857 rebellion in the city. Along with the police superintendent Charles Forjett, Mir Akbar Ali made continuous rounds of mosques, coffee houses and public places to keep an eye on any possible outbreak. In 1865, he was appointed to the rank of Inspector on the recommendation of his superiors. Mir Akbar Ali became a specialist in nabbing those involved in forgery of currency notes, which regularly took him to places outside Bombay city.

Bombay being host to a large migrant population and as a key port city was particularly prone to thefts and burglaries. And if the city had occasion to host dignitaries like the Viceroy, or other high-ranking officials, there would be increased pressure on the police as Indian rulers and chiefs would camp in the city with their followers and attendants, thus attracting a large number of potential thieves. During the visit of the Duke of Edinburgh in 1869-70, Mir Akbar Ali was specially commended for keeping theft cases to a minimum.

Mir Akbar Ali’s reputation and fame as a detective enticed his elder son Mir Abdul Ali to join the force as well. He was born in August 1840 and passed the matriculate examination of the University of Bombay in 1865, being among the first batch of Muslim students in the city to do so. The same year he joined the Bombay Police and started to learn the ropes of the trade from his father. On several occasions, the father-son investigated cases together which included several instances of nabbing forgers of coins and notes. In March 1867, the father-son duo along with a deputy commissioner of police hid in the first-floor room of a house in Kumbharwada (an important trading and shopping hub) where the masterminds were suspected to assemble. Upon hearing the elaborate conversation which laid bare their modus operandi, the three officers pounced on the suspects and arrested them. Mir Abdul Ali received Rs 1,000 as his share of the cash reward.

Arguably, the most high-profile case in which both of them played a role was the poisoning of Colonel Phayre, the British resident in the court of Malhar Rao Gaekwad of Baroda. The Gaekwad and the British resident shared mutual distrust for each other which had put in motion a series of recriminations and plotting. In this background it was revealed that an attempt was made to poison Colonel Phayre in 1875. This was a sensitive case where a sovereign was charged with the attempted poisoning of a resident minister. Baroda was a 21-gun salute princely state.

For their roles in the investigation, father and son were each given cash rewards of Rs 3,500. The awards were given by the Bombay Governor Sir Philip Wodehouse at his official residence. It was also pointed out that lakhs of rupees were available as bribes during the enquiry but none of it could tempt the detectives involved in the enquiry. The Gaekwad was deposed and exiled to Madras.

Several cases investigated by them involved making fraudulent insurance claims. Ships or houses were set on fire to claim insurance money, only for painstaking investigation to reveal that these were not accidents but deliberate acts. This included a ship Aurora being deliberately set alight in June 1870 just hours after leaving Bombay shore. The trial in the case made news in important commercial centres like New York, Bombay, Liverpool, London and Calcutta because of its ingenuity.

Mir Abdul Ali was also pressed into service in the case of Maulvi Liaqat Ali, the famous leader of Allahabad during the 1857 struggle. Liaqat Ali was accused of killing several British officials and was in close touch with Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi. For over 14 years he was on the run in various disguises till he was arrested in Bombay in 1872 from Byculla railway station. Notes recovered from Maulvi Liaqat Ali were deciphered by Mir Abdul Ali and the Oriental translator which helped establish his identity, following which he was dispatched to Allahabad to stand trial.

Khan Bahadur Mir Akbar Ali served Bombay Police for over 50 years and retired in 1883 at the age of 75. Sir Frank Souter, who was the commissioner, described him as “the eminent detective whose fame is such in the important branch of the police department as I believe no other police officer in India has yet acquired.” Mir Akbar Ali died in 1894, but his son scaled greater heights as the British became more open to allowing Indians to move up the hierarchy.

In 1881, a special post of Superintendent was created for Mir Abdul Ali on the recommendation of Sir Frank Souter. This was the position from which he retired in 1903 after 37 years of service. Mir Abdul Ali sent his sons to England for higher studies and one of them became the chief justice in Gwalior. He died three years later in June 1906, and was being written about as the Indian Sherlock Holmes. Mir Akbar Ali and Mir Abdul Ali are still waiting for their detective tales to be told to a wider audience.