Shivdeep Lande

Shivdeep Wamanrao Landeis an IPS Officer of 2006 Batch. He is currently serving as Deputy Inspector General- Anti Narcotics Cell, Crime Branch-Mumbai in Maharashtra Police on Central deputation. Earlier, he served as the Superintendent of Police in Araria, Purnia and Munger districts of Bihar. His tenure as the SP of Patna (Central Region) was quite popular. He arrested many criminals and took action against offenders. Lande was popular as he took strict action against eve-teasers. Shivdeep Lande has been affectionately given many names such as ‘Dabbang’, ‘Singham’ and ‘The Supercop’ by the people.

As per media reports, he donates 60% to 70% of his salary to the sangathan which organizes mass marriages of poor girls and runs coaching classes and a hostel for students in Akola to "Aid Them Realize Their Dreams".

Shivdeep Lande was born on 29 August 1976 in Akola district in the Vidarbha Area of Maharashtra in the year 1976. He was born in a Maharashtrian farmer's family. He married Mamta Shivtare on 2 February 2014, he has a daughter named Arhaa. Mamta Shivtare is the daughter of Vijay Shivtare who currently serves as the Minister of State For Water Resources And Water Conservation, and is also the Guardian Minister of Satara District in Maharashtra.

Lande received his early education from Saraswati Vidya Mandir High School in his hometown Akola, and his bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from Shri Sant Gajanan Maharaj College of Engineering, Shegaon in Maharashtra, India. Lande joined the Indian Police Services after completing his training at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy in Hyderabad. Although he was first selected for Indian Revenue Services, later he joined the Indian Police Service in 2006.

Lande joined the Maharashtra Police in the year 2017 on central deputation from Bihar and is currently serving as Deputy Commissioner of Police- Anti Narcotics Cell,Crime Branch-Mumbai. He took the inter-state deputation of 3 years to come to his home state Maharashtra. In Bihar, Lande headed the Special Task Force (STF) as his last posting.

In Bihar, Lande headed the Special Task Force (STF) as his last posting and was also Senior SP of Police in Patna. Lande served as the City Superintendent of Police in Patna, Bihar and built a huge support group in less than a year among the citizens. A He was transferred to Araria district in Bihar, which led to protests among the people of Patna.

International Drug Bust in Mumbai

Lande has currently involved in an ongoing investigation into the seizure of drugs and is unfolding as the biggest seizure by the Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC) in India. The ANC of the Mumbai Police Crime Branch had seized 100 kg of a substance claimed to be fentanyl in December 2018. Further investigation by the forensic department proved the illicit to be 1-Phenethyl-4-Piperidone, which is used in the production of fentanyl and is a restrained substance under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. The drug was valued at Rs 1000 crore and was to be shipped to Mexico and then would be smuggled to the US according to claims by the Police. The main accused in the case was Salim Dola, reported to have ties with international drug cartels said Shivedeep Lande, deputy commissioner of police, ANC.

Dance Bar Racket in Mumbai

Shivdeep Lande was working as the DCP Narcotics in Mumbai Crime Branch when he was asked to check the western Mumbai to ensure no bar or restaurant was defying norms. Informers were called up when Saroj Palace bar in Malor, Andheri was found operating. The case came to light when a team led by Lande, from the AntiNarcotics Cell, Kandivli unit, raided Saroj Palace on 30 March 2019 as directed by commissioner of police, Sanjay Barve to carry out surprise checks at bars and restaurants. Obscene dances are not authorized in a dance bar according to the Maharashtra Prohibition of Obscene Dance in Hotels, Restaurant and Bar Rooms and Protection of Dignity of Women (Working therein) Act, 2016(revised)and an employer allowing them would be jailed for three years. The team arrested 15 people and four women working at the bar registered a complaint at the MIDC police station.

Cocaine Bust – Mumbai

In July 2018, Lande, under the leadership of Sanjay Barve, the recently appointed city commissioner of Mumbai, launched an operation against Nigerian drug peddlers and arrested nine Nigerian nationals peddling drugs like cocaine and Mephedrone alias MD alias Meow Meow. 104 gram of cocaine worth Rs 5,20,000 and 09 grams of Mephedrone worth Rs 18,000 were reportedly seized from the accused.

Rohtas Land Mafia

In 2015, Land mafia in Rohtas district of Bihar opened fire on him while he was serving there as the Superintendent of Police. He had a narrow escape from the open fire. The reason behind the act being Lande's numerous raids on local stone mills to attack the unauthorized mills. This was a one-time thing that happened in the state ever, where 100 stone-crusher units were demolished in a single day. It was believed that the alleged nexus between stone mafia and local cops made his transfer in August 2015.

NREGA scam in Bihar

Lande and his team has cracked the utilization of MNREGA funds at Karghair panchayat in Narpatganj block in Araria district of Bihar while serving as SP at Araria. More than 1,000 Below Poverty Line people were issued job cards under the MNREGA scheme. However, the bonafide, unemployed youths were not given jobs but their job entries were made in the card.

In the midst of several complaints about how MNREGA funds were retreated through fake passbooks, a police team led by then SP Lande pounced on the premises of the above-mentioned officials, and took the lid off the prodigious MNREGA funds.

Indira Awaas Yojana scamsters

A social welfare programme, Indira Awaas Yojana (hereafter, IAY), to aid poorest of poor showed signs of discrepancy as per the reports provided by Controller and Auditor of State. While Shivdeep Lande was working as SP, his investigations uncovered that the Centre gave 40 lakh – Rs. 10,000 each for 400 families to repair and construct IAY houses in Chirha panchayat under Jokihat constituency. The then Block Development Officer (BDO) of the Panchayat Samiti, allegedly enrolled fake names in logbook and put fake thumb impressions to withdraw the money. B K Gupta, the national monitor of Union Rural Development Ministry, visited Jokihaat and sent his report saying that the BDO was the prime suspect in fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 40 lakh from the Central fund. Then BDO Ramesh Jha, filed and FIR at Jokihat police station against this, who is now himself wanted in seven IAY cases.

Two dozen government officials including additional district magistrate Radha Mohan Ram, then Jokihaat Block Development Officer (BDO) Ramesh Jha, assistant engineer Vinod Paswan, additional collector; Shamim Akhtar and child development programme officer Sunita Kumari were allegedly involve in fraud of crores of rupees by the way of "Construction of Indira Awas house only on paper" while 74 more IAY caes were being investigated.

None of the above-mentioned person took the postings they were offered after being shifted from Araria, except for Ram and were wanted between 2007 and 2009 in IAY cases filed at numerous police stations. Lande arrested then Jokihaat BDO Firoz Naim in 2007 from his Patna residence and mukhiya Imran Sadir, also from Patna, in connection with a Jokihaat police station case. The fraudulent took place in 2004 which amounts to Rs 40 Lakh. The case was registered in 2007 after a Central government report."

Arrest of fake doctors over botched tubectomies

On 9 January 2012, three unqualified volunteers were held by bihar police for performing tubectomies on 53 women without any proper medicine or anaesthesia under a health camp organized by director of a voluntary organization in Patna, Bihar. Tubectomy or tubal ligation, is a surgical procedure for sterilisation which involves the tying up of fallopian tubes as a permanent method of contraception.

About 350 km from Patna, Kaparfora village is located where this camp was organized by Jai Ambe Welfare Society just a week ago before the arrest.

The three reckless volunteers were arrested the same day. Police raided the house of the NGO Director Kumar Nath Jha and Vidya Nath Bishwas and seized all the seals of doctors, civil surgeons and other government officials. The CDs seized from the houses revealed that “the tubectomies were even performed on minor girls and aged womenand all surgeries were performed with no medical care and anaesthesia within two hours only which is violation of all norms” said Lande.

According to SP Lande, expired medicines were distributed to the women. District health officials alleged the NGO wooed poor women in Kaparfora by offering to pay Rs 600 per head and free medicines. All the surgeries were performed in the absence of a qualified doctor at camp. Some of the women developed complication but were lucky enough to survive after camp said officials. Police came to know all of this only when relatives of affected women complained about their deteriorating condition after surgery. Later medical care was given to women and they were taken to the hospital for treatment. On requesting anonymity an official from NGO said that the surgeries were performed by a surgeon and not the volunteers who have been arrested. Civil surgeon Dr. Husne Ara admitted that there was an acute shortage of surgeons in the district but the government had fixed the target of 28,000 family planning operations a year.

Child Trafficking Rescues

February 2012: 25 Underprivileged girls rescued from flesh trade in Bihar fair

A raid conducted under Araria SP Shivdeep Landerescued 25 minor girls who were allegedly forced to dance naked at a theatre in a rural fair near Indo-Nepal Border adjoining Araria, Bihar and 44 people were arrested.

The minor girls - hailing from state's Bhagalpur and Supaul districts, Uttar Pradesh and Nepal - were brought here by a gang and forced into flesh trade, they were not only forced to dance naked for entertainment but to attract buyers also. All the rescued minor girls were reported to be from the neighbouring state areas and from Nepal were then handed over to the district children's welfare committee for rehabilitation whereas the people arrested were from Haryana. "It appears to be a part of a big human trafficking racket, stated Lande. He admitted that human trafficking racket was a major rampant in various neighbouring pockets along the Indo-Nepal border, particularly in Araria, about 350 km from Patna."

August 2014 : Two teens rescued from brothels

On 30th august 2014, following the leads that were delivered from tracking Child Trafficking gangs in and around Araria in Bihar, Lande was further involved in rescuing 2 underage girls from a brothel in Forbesganj sub-division in Araria district. Cues divulged by an NGO to the police, helped them to swoop down red light area and arrested Raju who was the alleged Kingpin of a girl’s traffickers gang and one of the victim was identified as sister of another girl rescued from Khuskibagh in Purnia when SP Shivdeep Lande, Araria busted the gangs of traffickers in September 2012.

Entry-mafia racket bust

Araria SP Shivdeep Lande, while in additional charge of Kishanganj district in Bihar busted a flourishing racket that had caused huge revenue losses every week to the state government, by facilitating & conniving at illegal lying of vehicles and allowing passage to overloaded trucks through a 4 km corridor on National Highway No. 31 in Kishanganj district.

Around 4,000 trucks pass through the check posts every day, a third with forged documents provided by the "entry mafia" for Rs 3,500 a truck A rough estimate says the "entry mafia" has been causing an annual loss of over Rs. 300 crore to the exchequer through non-payment of taxes. Trucks plying with illegal coal and stone chips are allegedly provided forged documents and a code is written on the windscreen for smooth passage. Once the mafia is paid, the vehicles don't have to pay other taxes at the check posts or anywhere on National Highway 31.SP Lande came across the racket during surprise check on the NH-31 on 26 & 27 May 2012 in Kishanganj. The mafia had his network widespread to district not only in Bihar, but in the neighbouring state of West Bengal, as well.

The Action Taken Report (ATR) sought by the state home department on the basis of a detailed report submitted to the state government by then Rohtas SP Shivdeep Lande in 2015 left senior police officers of four districts of south and central Bihar red-faced. In it, Lande said over-loading of trucks carrying coal and stone chips from Jharkhand caused an estimated loss of Rs 1,000 crore per annum. Also, it said, the entry mafia had made strong inroads into police and the political class in south and central Bihar and allowed trucks to enter Bihar, with forged documents, from Jharkhand through the main check post on Grand Trunk road. On 29 May 2015, Lande had seized 65 trucks carrying illegal coal from Jharkhand and two FIRs were lodged with the Dehri town police station in Rohtas district. The racket had been go