Mr. Sanjay Ramesh Patil

Sanjay Ramesh Patil (left) being honoured by BEST Chairman Ashish Chemburkar.
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Mr. Ashish Chemburkar, chairman of the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply & Transport (BEST) Undertaking felicitated Mr. Sanjay Ramesh Patil, conductor badge No. BC-98486 of Majas Depot, who saved innumerable souls from falling prey to the inhuman and heinous acts of anti-social elements, last week at the BEST headquarters.
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Sanjay Patil, now a household name, is a resident of Kalwa and is in the service with BEST for the last four years.Having a bachelors degree in Commerce, he chose to become a conductor, as getting a job to make ends meet was the need of the hour.Mr. Patil was given a certificate and cash prize of Rs.1,000.

Sanjay's joy knew no bounds, he ran short of words after he was felicitated."I have just done my duty.It is a part of my job to check the bus after it is been pulled up at the last stop.I never imagined that I would receive such a great honour for performing my normal duty for which I am paid a salary."Tears rolled down eyes as he said that my parents were so happy when they heard about me.Sanjay was on duty in Bus No.6448 of Route No. 336 on December 2 of Majas Depot where he detected the bomb wrapped up in a cloth bag and kept under the rear seat.

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Mr. S.S. Kshatriya, general manager, BEST, appreciated the presence of mind and alertness shown by Sanjay and appealed to all the employees of the Undertaking to continue to render such devoted services to the citizens of the city.If the bomb was not detected and diffused in time, the intensity of the blast would have been multifold as compared to the Ghatkopar bus depot blast as the bomb had 14 gelatine sticks and weighed approximately 1 kg.200 grams.

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Sanjay Patil

At 9:40 pm on December 2, Sanjay Ramesh Patil, a bus conductor with the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking, took his first step towards being a hero.

Patil's bus, BEST 6448, plying on Route 336, between SEEPZ and Andheri railway station, had just pulled up at the last stop in front of the SEEPZ Special Economic Zone, before it could drive into the sprawling SEEPZ bus depot.

After the last passenger got off, Patil undertook the customary check for any object left behind in the bus.He noticed a harmless-looking cloth bag under the last seat on the left side of the bus.

Without touching it, he immediately informed the depot inspector at SEEPZ, as per instructions given to every BEST conductor.He had followed a simple rule and yet taken a huge step.

As the police and the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad verified later, any delay on Patil's part could have meant that the next trip of the bus, from SEEPZ to Andheri station, might have led to a tryst with injury or even death for some 60-odd passengers.

A bomb was found in the cloth bag and later defused by Black Cat commandos.

Patil will be felicitated today at BEST headquarters, Electric House, Colaba, for ensuring that the undertaking did not emerge twice battered in one evening.
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Patil acknowledges that news that barely three hours earlier a bomb had blown out the rear portion of a BEST bus outside Ghatkopar railway station had played a part in rousing his suspicions.At Ghatkopar, two people were killed and around 30 injured.

"I was having dinner with other conductors at the SEEPZ depot canteen after my 5:30 to 8 pm shift, when a BEST inspector told us about the Ghatkopar blast," Patil recalls.

According to him, after a stunned silence, another conductor spat out an expletive and said, "So what, we don't stop plying our buses.Let's get on with it and show those idiots."

Patil says, "That sort of determination might have rubbed off when we went to work on our night shift."

A Kalwa resident, he joined the BEST four years ago at the Govandi bus depot after doing various small jobs since his graduation from the Vikas night college, Vikhroli.

The father of a five-year-old boy and two-year-old girl shyly reveals that his children have no idea what an important thing he has done and his parents and wife do not show it.

"It is part of my job.At home, I am still the same person I was," he says.He is looking forward to the felicitation ceremony, though.

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Chaos reigned all through the night at the terminal, after the unidentified white shoebox was first detected by conductor Sanjay Ramesh Patil and driver Pandurang Pawar.

The two are temporary employees of the BEST.Patil said, "We are used only temporarily, whenever a permanent employee is absent.Yesterday was the first day I was working with Pawar."He added that he hadn't heard of what had happened in Ghatkopar when he discovered the box.

Ghatkopar Blast: Complete Coverage

The senior MIDC police officer said the Black Cats discovered that the SEEPZ bomb was a crude country-made one."We got to know it was a live one only after the NSG team defused it," he said.