It was 10pm. I was having dinner, when a friend, who is a cop, called to say someone had opened fire at Leopold Café. Like others, I thought it had something to do with a gang war. But minutes later, I found out that the city was under siege by terrorists. I knew I was onto one of the most important stories of my career.
Wasting little time, I reached CST station, where two terrorists were running riot. A little later, I moved on to the DCP Zone-1 office, where I saw additional commissioner of police Ashok Kamte and inspector Vijay Salaskar. Kamte was carrying an AK-47.
I left the place and was shocked to learn later that both Salaskar and Kamte, as well as joint commissioner Hemant Karkare, had been gunned down.
I went ahead to the Taj and then to Nariman House to find hardly anyone on the streets.
The next morning, I went to both these places again; Nariman House had been cordoned off but I managed to get close. A grenade flew out from one of the windows and fell close to where I was. So I moved a little further into a building from where I could watch the proceedings from a safe spot. On day three, I had a breakthrough; I cajoled an officer to part with details of the FIR lodged against Ajmal Kasab, the only terrorist who survived the police offensive.
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