In over 30 years of dedicated service, IPS Varun Kapoor has established his name as an expert in cyber security as well as an efficient police officer who has a penchant for solving cold cases – cases that are shelved in files for long and lie buried till an officer like him decides to dig them up and go after them.
In an exclusive conversation with Indian Masterminds, the officer talks about his world records as well as his passion for cyber security and solving difficult cases.
THREE WORLD RECORDS HOLDER
Mr. Kapoor received his first award – World Book of Records London Award – for the maximum number of cyber security awareness workshops by any one person anywhere in the world. His passion to work in the field of Cyber Security earned him the prestigious honor. As of today, he has held 521 seminars.
“I have maintained a proper record of all the 521 seminars in which I have directly addressed nearly 4 lakh people. My seminars educate the people in the field of cyber security and make them understand how to protect themselves from cybercrimes and fraud,” he told Indian Masterminds.
His second world record was for ‘highest number of cold cases of murder solved by any police officer, anywhere in the world.’ He received this award in 2021. Cold cases refer to the cases in which the investigation has been closed without coming to a proper judgment and the files have been long buried in a pile. To date, the officer has solved 104 cold cases.
Mr. Kapoor received his third world record during the Covid pandemic when it was not possible to conduct live workshop sessions. He conducted a record number of 170 webinars on cyber security across the country during that period.
“I conducted online webinars in countries like Malaysia, Japan, UK and others along with India. In those 1.5 years, I was able to conduct over 170 webinars based on cyber security awareness,” stated Mr. Kapoor.
OPERATION ‘UJAGAR’
Mr. Kapoor has a deep interest in solving cold cases that lie buried in files and providing justice to the families of the victims. This led him to launch ‘Operation Ujagar’, under which he collected a small team of skilled police personnel wherever he was posted and worked on unsolved old cases.
He solved his first cold case when he was posted as the Superintendent of Police in Dhar, Madhya Pradesh, and hasn’t stopped since. “My original motive was to solve murders that have been forgotten and bring justice to the victims and their families. Moreover, solving old murder cases sends a message to the criminals as well that their luck will run out and they will get caught eventually, thereby making them scared of committing more crimes,” he said.
The officer made sure to publish his solved murder cases in print media across the country so that they reach a wider audience. This step killed two birds with one stone. On one hand, criminals reading about the cases backed off from doing crimes, and on the other, family members who had lost their loved ones and had still not received any justice contacted the officer to seek his help.
“I used to take out the old files, study the cases with my team, and investigate them. Surprisingly, there was a lot of evidence already in those files that had not been followed up to logical conclusions, and as a result, the criminals were not arrested. I simply followed up the leads and gained directions, which helped us further.”
CHALLENGING CASES
Mr. Kapoor recalled a few cases while talking to Indian Masterminds. There was this murder mystery which he had solved after 15 years of the actual crime! The murderer at the time of committing the crime was in his twenties, and when he was finally put behind bars, he was well above his forties.
In a sensational case, a retired bank manager was murdered in a sensitive area of a city. “After we solved the crime and it came in the newspaper, the victim’s son visited me. He was very emotional and cried his heart out. When I dwelled deeper, I understood that the son was not only crying because his father’s murder was finally solved, but he was in tears because all these years, the society blamed him for his father’s murder. The relationship between them wasn’t great and they had an ugly fight just few hours before the murder. The son was finally relieved that his name was cleared.”
Another cold case involved a girl from a Ujjain village who was so obsessed with her little brother that she threw the infants of anyone who scolded him into the village well and drowned them. Within two years, she killed five infants by drowning them. The case was eight years old and wasn’t solved till Mr. Kapoor got posted as the DIG of the range.
“The girl was 12 years old when she had committed the murders and was around 20 years old when we arrested her. She used to take revenge on the neighbors who scolded her brother for his mischievous behavior!”
From solving unsolved murder mysteries to working unceasingly for cyber security, Mr. Kapoor has not only created record after record for himself but also raised the benchmark for other officers.
