He was known as the Black Knight of the South West­ern Po­lice Di­vi­sion, a hum­ble po­lice of­fi­cer whose gut in­stinct and su­perb crime de­tec­tion skills led to the in­car­cer­a­tion of over 100 crim­i­nals.

On Tues­day morn­ing be­fore his col­leagues, friends and fam­i­ly, Po­lice Sargeant Adesh Gookool was giv­en a mil­i­tary send­off at his Darsan Trace, Siparia home.

Mem­bers of Gookool’s batch and his col­leagues in­clud­ing Se­nior Supt De­onar­ine Bas­deo and ASP Pe­ter Ramdeen broke down in tears as the cas­ket was opened.

Ramdeen who de­liv­ered the eu­lo­gy said Gookool joined the TTPS in 1999 and was teamed up with him at the Siparia Po­lice Sta­tion. To­geth­er as young con­sta­bles, Ramdeen said they be­came known as “Bat­man and Robin”.

“With­in one-month se­ri­ous crimes and mi­nor of­fences went down by 75 per cent,” Ramdeen re­called.

For years, the Di­vi­sion had high­est crime de­tec­tion rates and Ramdeen said Gookool came to be feared by crim­i­nals.

“Adesh took it per­son­al­ly when­ev­er a crime hap­pened un­der his watch,” Ramdeen said.

Re­cent­ly, a woman was robbed, raped and kid­napped be­fore be­ing dropped off in Oropouche.

Ramdeen said Gookool mo­bilised a team and went in search of the sus­pect. “He lat­er found a man fit­ting the de­scrip­tion dri­ving a car and he re­cov­ered a firearm, the vic­tim’s clothes and valu­ables,” he added.

Out of 100 cas­es that they brought be­fore the courts, Ramdeen said they lost on­ly one mat­ter. He said Gookool was al­ways ea­ger to share his knowl­edge and al­ways trust­ed his gut in­stinct.

“He nev­er took a sin­gle day of sick leave in all the years I knew him. He was a mo­ti­va­tor to us and I have nev­er seen him vex. He al­ways kept his emo­tion in check,” Ramdeen re­called.

He said even when Gookool was ac­ci­den­tal­ly shot in the chest by a col­league, he dis­played re­straint.

“The bul­let bare­ly missed his heart and when the doc­tor told him he joked that it was a good thing he had no heart. He used to say the Dev­il has his work and I have mine. He was so pleas­ant, he nev­er held on to grudges and he be­lieved in get­ting jus­tice,” Ramdeen added.

Ramdeen said apart from his reg­u­lar po­lice du­ties, Gookool worked with the youths of his neigh­bour­hood.

He al­so served as a men­tor to the vic­tims of crime.

MP Dr Lack­ram Bo­doe said the of­fi­cer was in­volved in com­mu­ni­ty sports.

“I knew him long be­fore I be­came an MP. He played his role as a hus­band, fa­ther and po­lice of­fi­cer very well,” Bo­doe said.

He urged the mourn­ers to be cog­nisant of their health.

“Ex­er­cise prop­er health care and be sure to do prop­er screen­ing and watch your di­et,” Bo­doe said.

Gookool died on Sat­ur­day morn­ing af­ter suc­cumb­ing to a heart at­tack.

He had gone to a foot­ball match which he or­ga­nized af­ter work for the youths of his com­mu­ni­ty.

He leaves to mourn his wife Mintra and their two chil­dren, Mick­el and Chelsea.