E.N. Rammohan

Edavelath Nalamveetil Rammohan (20 November 1940 – 8 April 2018) was an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the 1965 batch. He retired as the Director General (DG) of India's Border Security Force (BSF).

Biography Rammohan was born in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, to an educated Malayali family from Mahe in the Malabar region of Kerala. His parents, N.P. Laxmanan and E.K. Radha, moved to Madras (now Chennai) when he was three years old. His early school years were at Church Park Convent, Chennai, and he then moved to Christian College High School, Chennai. He finished school at 14 and went on to study a Bachelors in Science and a Masters in Zoology at Presidency College, Chennai. At college he played cricket and hockey, sports that he also enjoyed playing later at the National Police Academy. He also started practicing weightlifting, using the large grinding stones at home, typically found in South Indian kitchens.

Career While Rammohan was always keen to join the Indian Army, his father wouldn’t allow it and so he took up a job as a teacher and housemaster at Sainik School, Bhubaneshwar, in Odisha (then Orissa), where he worked for two years. Several of his students at this Sainik School went on to become senior Indian Army officers. While he was there he took the Indian civil services exam and qualified for the IPS (1965 batch). He chose to join the Assam cadre as he wanted a life of adventure and India’s north-east was a lesser-known region to him at the time. He began his career as SDPO (Sub Divisional Police Officer) Sibsagar and as Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Guwahati. In 1970 he went on deputation as the second-in-command of a battalion in the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP). Over the next couple of years he commanded an ITBP training centre. His stint also included doing courses on guerrilla warfare. He then came to ITBP headquarters in New Delhi. In 1976 he went to Meghalaya state as Superintendent of Police (SP) – East Khasi Hills, based in Shillong. During his tenure as DG BSF, the force also contributed during the Kargil War. Rammohan also led the BSF in its bi-annual border talks with Pakistan and Bangladesh during these years.

Post-retirement, he was advisor to the Governor of Manipur from June 2001 to March 2002. He advised the government of Manipur in various capacities on counter-insurgency and border management issues. In 2010 he was appointed by the Union Home Ministry to investigate the events leading to the attack and killing of 76 CRPF jawans in Dantewada. His report submitted to the Union Home Ministry has not been made public. He also traveled with a fact-finding mission of civil society organisations to Gujarat in the aftermath of the Godhra Riots. He believed the denial of land rights and non-implementation of land-ceiling laws was one of the root causes of insurgency. Another reason he mentioned was the exploitation of tribal people, when it came to accessing forest produce or mineral rights to their land.

Personal life E.N. Rammohan was married in 1969 to K.M. Prema (Kalandi Maroli Prema). They had two children. Their son, Major K.E. Padmanabhan, was a pilot in the Indian Army Aviation Corps, who died in a helicopter crash during a casualty evacuation mission in Ladakh, on 15 August 2008. He was awarded a Sena Medal (Gallantry) for this mission. Their daughter, K.E. Priyamvada, is a publishing professional, based in New Delhi. She was the winner of Mastermind India in the year 2000, and is the author of several books.

Publications Simply Khakhi (2005) Insurgent Frontiers: Essays From the Troubled Northeast (2006) South Asia and the Rise of Islamic Fundamentalism (2007) The Implacable Taliban, Repeating History in Afghanistan (2010) Countering Insurgencies in India: An Insider's View (2011)

Awards President's Police Medal for Distinguished Service (1991) ZEE TV – Ananya Samman for Lifetime Achievement (2010)