Mir Abdul Ali
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Mir Abdul Ali (August 1840[1] – 14 June 1906, service in the Bombay Police from 1865 to 1903) with the titles of Khan Bahadur and Sardar, was an Indian police detective who served with the British Police Force in Bombay City. His father Akbar Ali had also served in the police force and had earned a reputation for solving crimes and had retired with high honours. Abdul Ali continued in the tradition and was once known as the Sherlock Holmes of India.
Abdul Ali's father Akbar Ali was born in 1802 in a family of Sayyids who had fled from the Abbasid Caliphs of Baghdad to settle in India. The family had been provided with a title to settle in the village of Manchar, Khed, where Mir Abdul Ali had been born. He was taught Marathi and Hindustani but his parents died young. By marriage he was linked to another Syed family from Narayangaon. He went to Bombay to seek employment and joined the Bombay Police Force on 1 September 1821 under Captain Shortt, Head of the Police. In 1840 he was sent to Aden to organize a police force there. In 1852 he became a Jamadar and in 1856, a Subedar. During the 1857 rebellion he helped the British police identify a critical informant who had intelligence on the plans of sepoys. In 1861, he received the title of Khan Bahadur. He demonstrated skills in solving several cases and in 1865, Akbar Ali was made an inspector. Among the cases he solved were currency forgeries and in one case he brought to book two forgers in Surat that included a European and an influential Indian. In another case he arrested a Chinese burglar named John Wynn. Yet another case was a mass poisoning in Kalbadevi where two women had died and three others had suffered from the poisoning. Akbar Ali retired with honours in December 1883. He died on 8 March 1894, at the age of 92. Abdul Ali worked with his father and helped the latter solve several cases even before joining the police force.[2]
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