Radha Vinod Raju, super sleuth, anti-terrorism expert and first chief of National Investigation Agency (NIA), died in Kochi on Thursday.

He was 63, and leaves for posterity the ‘filmy touch’ to his personality that was the stuff of the popular ‘CBI series’ movies.

The condition of Raju, admitted to Lakeshore hospital on Monday following a lung infection, turned worse by Wednesday evening. He passed away at 3.40 a.m., the hospital said.

An IPS officer from the Jammu and Kashmir cadre, Raju had also served in the CBI between 1983 and 1989 and headed the operational wing of the Special Investigation Team that cracked the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case in 1991.

Born on July 27, 1949, Raju worked with Bank of India before joining the IPS. Widely known as the real-life ‘Sethurama Iyer CBI’, Raju solved several murder and corruption cases during his spell in CBI.

Later, he moved to J&K to deal with the militant activities there, before joining the NIA as its head. Raju was an authority on the LTTE.

In 2002, he functioned as joint director of the CBI. He was also one of the joint authors of “Triumph of Justice – The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination – The Investigation,” a book which explains the way the SIT cracked the Rajiv Gandhi case.

He leaves his wife Achamma and two daughters, Renu and Sindhu. His last rites were held with state honours at Ravipuram crematorium.

Mammootty and SN Swamy, the two ‘CBI men’ in the Mollywood, paid homage to Raju by paying their last respects at the latter’s residence on Chilavannoor Road in Kochi.

The actor and the scriptwriter came together and paid floral tributes to the body of the renowned investigating officer.

Swamy, who penned the CBI series of movies, was believed to be inspired by Raju’s investigation style. A close friend of Swamy, Raju had also provided stories of several investigations for the CBI series.

Raju was regarded as the first investigating officer who used ‘dummies’ to solve a difficult case in Kerala. He dropped dummies from the top of a building to crack the Polakkulam murder case, an idea which was later adopted in the movie, Oru CBI diary kurippu.

However, after paying their last respects, Swamy and Mammootty said the similarity between the character Sethuram Iyer and R.V. Raju was sheer coincidence.

‘I lost my mentor, India lost a great cop’

Radha Vinod Raju was a patriot in every sense of the word. I had the privilege to work with him during the ‘Mission 90 days’ when we hunted down the assassinators of the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

He kept the probe cool and calm, while leading us in the right direction. He was indeed a brave cop.

While the investigating chiefs used to take off on Saturdays and Sundays during the mission,
Raju used to sit in the office on all days probing the case.

I remember, once his wife fell ill during the mission, but he refused to leave the investigation camp, as he valued his duty more than his family.

He was my mentor throughout my career. I used to approach him whenever I got stuck at some point. He used to give hints to the cases even over the phone.

When I filmed Mission 90 days, I tried to portray Raju as himself, who guides the protagonist throughout the mission.

Actor Lalu Alex also played a major role in replicating his characteristics.

I am also very close to his family. His nephew Sidharth was the person who played Rajiv Gandhi in Mission 90 days. Sidharth also composed music for my movie Kandahar.