Career - Details

  • Joined the Maharashtra Police Force in the year 1978 through the Maharashtra Public Service Commission, as a Deputy Superintendent of Police (Direct Nominee).
  • Handled charge as Deputy Commissioner of Police in Bhiwandi, Superintendent of Police in Dhule, Nanded, Pune (Rural), Satara, Akola as Commandant of the State Reserve Police Force, Group 1 and 2, Pune and Group 9 Amravati and after that as Police Commissioner, Railway - Mumbai.
  • His first posting was as Deputy Superintendent of Police, Panvel, District Raigad. There he managed, with the help of his colleagues, to kill in an encounter, the dreaded bandit duo Ram-Shyam, who had been absconding for 22 years and were wanted in 7 cases of murder and robbery. In this encounter Khopade was gravely wounded as he sustained bullet injuries in the chest, thigh and ankle. For this exemplary display of bravery, he was awarded the President's Medal for Gallantry.
  • He innovated and successfully implemented many new schemes in order to improve public and especially Police administrations
    1. Mission and goal for the District Police.
    2. Restructuring the working of the Police Station.
    3. Kamsudhar Mandal based on Joint Family System, quality circle and Kaizen.
    4. Community Policing, Mohalla Committee.
    5. One day is yours, the rest are ours.
    6. HRD Project 54 Points questionnaire.
    7. Pardhi and Kanjarbhat rehabilitation.
    8. Shreshthata (Excellence) project at Pune for improvement of SRPF jawans and the environment.
  • The Constitutional review committee recommended that the Mohalla Committee Scheme should be included in the Indian Constitution.
  • The Central Government, in its circular "Guidelines to Promote Communal Harmony", has instructed that all the states should establish Mohalla committees in the communally sensitive areas in their jurisdiction, in order to maintain communal harmony.
  • He was invited to the following places for seminars on the Bhiwandi experiment, community policing and Khopade pattern:
    1. Many Universities in India
    2. Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.
    3. Planning Commission, Government of India.
    4. Home Ministry, Government of India.
    5. Sardar Vallabbhai Patel National Police Academy, Hyderabad.
    6. All India Police Science Congress.
    7. Indo-British Conferences, New Delhi.
    8. Seminar organized by the United Nations Fund Women, in New Delhi.
    9. SAARC Conference 1997, at Kathmandu Nepal.
    10. World Conference held at the Fribourg University, Switzerland in 1998.
  • As Superintendent of Police in Pune (Rural), Satara and Akola, he successfully executed the Mohalla Committee Scheme in every village. This helped to resolve all kinds of displutes, whether civil, criminal or political, nurtured a feeling of security in the villages and local areas and helped the public on to a parth of overall progress and development. Based on this, the Maharashtra State Government has started implementing the "Mahatma Gandhi Tantamuktagaon" (Discord free Village) scheme. (But as this scheme has not included two important aspects of the original scheme, it has some drawbacks.)
  • In 1997, there was bomb blasts in Coimbatore City in Tamil Nadu. This led to increased tension and later communal riots. The Police Commissioner who was transferred there, Mr. K. Radhakrishnan, executed the Bhiwandi experiment in Coimbatore without a single change. (He used the word area committee instead of Mohalla Committee.) There was complete peace there after this. For this experiment, Mr. Radhakrishnan was given the "Community Policing Award" by the International Chiefs Association of Police of the United States and several international awards. Later the Tamil Nadu State Government formed ward committees based on the concept of Mohalla Committees and passed a law to that effect.
  • In his seminal work "Hindus and Muslims in India" Ashutosh Varshney has called the peace in Bhiwandi in the wake of the so called Babri Masjid demolitions 'miraculous' and given Mr. Khopade and his work full credit for the same. While discussing the various experiments that have been undertaken to combat communal riots, Varshney says that Mr. Khopade's work "is far and away the most dramatic". Varshney laments that although Khopade's work was greatly appreciated by the Media and the Politicians, people did not understand the great potential that his ideas have. It wasn't replicated on the scale that it should have been. He says, :Khopade's achievements were widely hailed in political and journalistic circles, although the larger significance of his experiment - for the kinds of interventions that are possible and desirable in riot prone towns was not drawn.
  • Published works.
    1. Ram-Shyam shodh darodekhorancha,
    2. Bhiwandi Dangal - 1984,
    3. Navinyapoorna Yojana,
    4. Navi Disha,
  • His stories and research articles on Police Intelligence have been published in many magazines and newspapers.
  • He was given the Maharashtra Foundation Award in 2006 in recognition of his socially relevant work in the government service.
  • In 1992, the book Bhiwandi Dangal 1984 was awarded the prize for the best non-fiction ideological book by the Maharashtra Sahitya Parishad.
  • The American Library of Congress, Washingtion, honoured him as 'Research Author' for his book Bhiwandi Dangal 1984.
  • Awards
    1. 1993 - President's Medal for Gallentry.
    2. 1994 - Police Medal (for meritirious service)
    3. 1994 - D. G.'s Insignia

Posted by KC on July 6, 2009 Comments (3)