The News Minute| October 21, 2014| 10.30 pm IST
His death wasn't widely reported in the media. But the cases he probed always dominated headlines in both print and broadcast media for months and sometimes even years.
He was a quintessential investigator. A rare breed of detective, who shunned unnecessary media glare.
For reporters, he was very different from the usual lot of bumbling or loud mouthed police officers. But if anyone tried eliciting information from him, AGL Kaul only used to smile and would never share a "breaking news".
CBI, India's premier investigating agency, is not known for its acumen in probing murder cases, but Kaul and his team managed to crack some of the toughest murder cases. Sometimes the conclusions of their probe reports was completely different from what state police had concluded earlier.
He shocked everyone on 29th December 2011 when he filed his controversial closure report in Aarushi-Hemraj murder case. After probing the case for over 2 years, Kaul filed a closure report naming Aarushi's parents as prime suspects. In his deposition he said,"I wanted to file a chargesheet blaming parents for the twin murder but my seniors prevented me".
The court then converted closure report into a charge sheet and convicted the parents.
In August 2011, murder of Shehla Masood was a classic case of media jumping the gun. Wild allegations were levelled against many people. On sidelines of a CBI trial, Kaul, who was still trying to solve the case asked reporters,"do you really think the case is so complicated".
Few weeks later, in March 2012, he arrested Shehla's friend Zahid Parvez. In a career spanning 30 years, Kaul assisted and probed several cases and had one of the best conviction rates among CBI officials.
The last case he handled was the Badaun murder case. Despite international and national media glare, Kaul believed the two girls weren't raped. He worked tirelessly in his last few months, staying in a rundown guest house. When quizzed do you think it was honour killing, Kaul only smiled and didn't utter a word. All five suspects are now on bail. His teams vows to reveal the real truth.
His investigations were controversial, many outrightly rejected his conclusions. For others, he was the investigator who lead the probes in the right direction.
Kaul was superintendent of police, special crime division. For those who covered or reported the cases Kaul handled, the lasting imaging would be of him standing inside the court room, for hours, assisting the public prosecutor with facts. He died after suffering a massive heart attack on 11th October. AGL Kaul was 52.