Jam Abdullah, a name the city's police trusts

Meet Jam Abdullah, a jurisdiction planner from Chakla in south Mumbai. From designing the special security arrangement map of Wankhede Stadium for the oath-taking ceremony of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in 2014 to the immersion procession of Lalbaugcha Raja this year, Abdullah has always met the expectations of government agencies such as the Mumbai police and BMC. His job includes drawing up special maps of an area for security purposes or creating a new jurisdiction.

For the past 25 years, Abdullah has been designing jurisdiction maps for various police stations of the Mumbai police. Even at 60, Abdullah visits every lane of an area before designing a map. "The police have to make security arrangements according to existing structures. So the map must have mentions of each and every establishment that exists."

Abdullah's maps reflect minute details of a particular area. He got his break in map designing around 25 years ago when the Mumbai police asked him to recreate the murder scene of a watchman that took place at a Worli petrol pump. Since then he has designed over 1,000 maps for the Mumbai police.

Today, Abdullah is a known name among the police and BMC fraternity. He has even worked for the Indian Army and Naval force. He added that he also designed Sagri Map for the coastal police after travelling from Vashi to Mumbai in a boat.

Abdullah had to quit his seven-year course at JJ College of Arts midway due to personal reasons and take up journalism. "I worked for Bombay Samachar, a Gujarati newspaper, to meet daily needs," he said.