Telegraph picture
Jet, one of the oldest members of the state dog squad, died on Tuesday after serving the home (police) department for 12 long years.
He was given special police honours at the local police lines before being laid to rest. Handler Kharag Bahadur Tamang was among the 20-and-odd personnel of the dog squad present to salute and pay his respect to a canine they have very fond memories of.
Jet, a tracker, was credited with helping the police teams solve scores of theft, robbery, murder and kidnapping cases in Nalanda, Bhojpur, Patna and other neighbouring districts, among them one in Nalanda the police had totally given up on.
Former Nalanda superintendent of police (SP) Nishant Kumar Tiwari had rewarded Jet, who turned 13 last year, for helping the police crack a case related to recovery of a headless body
The identity of the deceased was ascertained after the severed head was recovered at a place 8km from where the body had been found.
Jet had also helped a Digha police team in Patna recover a body dumped by the riverside.
"It was another splendid job by this canine inducted into the state police force in 2003. I am proud of being its handler," said a sad Tamang. He fondly recalled their first meeting in early 2003 at the training centre when Jet was about six months old. "We both were young and ready to start our careers in the police force," he said.
Jet had earlier earned laurels for the police force at many national level competitions, including the All India Police Duty Meet, an annual event of different wings of the police organisations.
Records available with the dog squad office in Patna, which functions under the Criminal Investigation Department, show that the 13-year-old Labrador had helped the police detect over five dozen cases of loot, dacoity, theft and murder in Patna, Bhojpur, Nalanda and other neighbouring districts in the past decade.
Tamang had first met Jet at the Border Security Force's Tekanpur-based training centre in Madhya Pradesh when it was just six months old.
He is set to get another trained dog in the next few weeks.
"I am not aware if it would be a tracker, sniffer or mines (read landmine and explosive) detector," he said.
Tamang, a constable, is among 60-and-odd dog squad personnel being sent to the Meerut-based army centre next week to bring back 45 trained dogs purchased there. "The handlers would spend nearly two weeks with the canines and return with them, probably in the first week of September," dog squad in-charge Om Prakash told The Telegraph.
The dogs include 25 sniffers, 15 trackers and the rest experts in detecting landmines and other explosives. Forty-three of the dogs are Labradors and two are of Alsatian breed.
Five handlers were selected from each of the 38 districts and imparted training in Patna.
A senior IPS officer said the state police preferred Labradors. "The climate and environment is unsuitable for German Shepherds or Dobermans, which the state dog squad used to have before 90s. In addition, Labradors serve for a longer period," he said.
He said the new dogs would be sent to the districts.
"They would be at the disposal of deputy inspectors-general (DIGs) of respective police ranges," the officer said on the condition of anonymity.
Following Jet's death, the dog squad now has just 19 dogs, seven of them sniffers and trackers and five land mine detectors.