Times of India, March 25, 2007

Not just another cop!

Could an insult from a policeman ever ‘inspire ‘ you to throw away your ambitions and join the police forces to win back once lost dignity? Well for Navneet Sikera, it surely did. Fourteen years back and straight out of IIT, Navneet was excitedly hunting for his dream job as a software engineer when an incident that occurred changed the course of his career altogether.

“We had gone to police stations seeking help since my father had been getting threat calls; but the way police insulted my father left an inedible impact on my mind. Why should a dignified man be abused at the hands of an irresponsible policeman? That very day I decided to stand up to my father’s honour and things were never the same.

Indeed they weren’t. For Sekera sat for civil services exam same year and was selected the following year. Two years thence he stood tall as ASP of Meerut with a vengeance to bring justice to all those from whom it had been snatched.

It has been 10 years now that Sekera has proudly been rendering his duties towards a profession he never intended to venture into. But the experience has been truly exhilarating, he says.

“It’s a lovely profession, far more satisfying than any other. In these 10 years, I have become a much softer person than what I was. Having associated myself with people from all strata, I have come to understand their pains and predicaments in a much emphathetic manner.”

Born in Agra, Sekera secured his high school education in a small town Aeta and then graduated onto pursuing engineering at IIT Roorkee. At 35 he is happily married and is revered as a daredevil cop, a encounter specialist. He fights for a cause and doesn’t flinch to stand by righteousness.

People love me. It’s the criminals who are wary of my ways. “I ‘m no encounter king, I only believe in fulfilling my duties to the level of perfection.”

Extremely emotional, he is a man rich in values instilled in him by his father, and one with grit that one could only wish for.

As he elaborates on the struggle entailed to play a cop, he clearly loses no opportunity to vindicate the police department of the blame it has suffered to date. “The number of people working for police is extremely low and we aren’t granted any leave. We put our blood and sweat more than any other but fall back when it comes to infrastructure,” laments this Scorpio.

Looking back at those years when he had just stepped into the profession with a mission of initiating a revolution, how much of it has really been achieved? “Depends on the officer. It’s a wonderful profession provided one does it honestly and with righteous intentions. However the position is misused at times, but then we are people who belong to this society and thus behave in a certain way typical of society,” he justifies.