People & Profile

Senior IPS officer Rajiv Trivedi became the first civil service officer to have completed the famous Standard Chartered Full Marathon Mumbai 2010 on January 17, 2010. This was his way of paying tribute to his martyr friends who lost their lives in terrorist attacks. He ran a distance of 42.195 km in a creditable time of 3 hours 37 minutes.


Trivedi, an IPS officer of the1986 batch Tamil Nadu Cadre, currently serving as IGP, Tamil Nadu Police, was a dear friend to Late Ashok Kamte, IPS, who lost his life in the 26/11 attacks. In December 2008, after Mumbai got struck with terrorist attacks, Trivedi was called upon by the Gadge brothers of Mumbai, who planned to pay homage to the martyrs and victims through a long distance swim from Dharamtar to the Gateway of India. Trivedi regrets, "Due to some personal obligations I could not join them."
It was quite unexpected when Trivedi lost another IPS officer friend. Gadge brothers swam with ACP Balasaheb Gadge in the Strait of Gibraltar successfully but a tragedy struck in darkness of the night when Vinod Gadge got entangled in a fishing net and lost his life. He reminisces, "It came to me as a blow when I heard about Kamte's demise in Mumbai terror attacks and soon after a month, Gadge lost his life too," says Rajiv Trivedi.

"I had a vision to complete this run and dedicated it to my friends who lost their lives in terror attacks. My family and friends supported me throughout, hence I achieved my goal," he says. Trivedi's friend V Rajesh of the GMR Group dropped his candidature for the Mumbai Marathon 2010 without his knowledge. "Hence, I decided to dedicate his run to his two departed friends and the other martyrs," he adds.