Hemant Karkare was born on 12 December 1954 in Nagpur. He did his primary schooling from Chittranjan Das Municipal Primary School, Wardha and then received his middle school and high school education from New English High School, Wardha. He obtained a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Mechanical Engineering from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur in 1975. After graduation, he worked for the National Productivity Council of the Government of India and Hindustan Lever Limited (now called Hindustan Unilever Ltd.)

He joined the Indian Police Service (IPS) as a member of the 1982 batch. Before becoming ATS Chief of Maharashtra State in January 2008, he was Joint Commissioner of Police (Administration) of Mumbai Police. He served seven years in Austria in the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India's external intelligence agency.

26/11 Mumbai Attack

At 9.45 p.m. on 26 November 2008, while having his dinner at his Dadar residence, he received a call about a terrorist attack at Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus (C.S.T.) station. He left at once with his driver and bodyguards for C.S.T. There he donned a bullet-proof vest and went to Platform No.1, but found it deserted. He was then informed that the terrorists had moved to the Cama and Albless Hospital next to the Azad Maidan police station.

The operation was difficult as it was dark and the terrorists were well prepared. The officers, with a few constables, went into Cama from the back. A couple of constables were left stationed at the back entrance of Cama, while the rest boarded into a Qualis jeep. Senior officer Salaskar was driving the qualis, Ashok Kamte in the passenger seat, ATS Chief Hemant Karkare in the second row, and the four constables, including Jadhav, were in the back row of seating. About that time, they heard on the wireless that the terrorists were hiding behind a red car.

As they turned from the Crime Branch office towards Rang Bhavan looking for the red car, near the Corporation Bank ATM, they saw one of the terrorists running. Ashok Kamte, ACP of Mumbai East or Salaskar or both fired, the bullet hitting the terrorist on his arm, his AK-47 fell down. He was Kasab, the lone terrorist captured alive later. As they were thinking of getting down, a second terrorist, Ismail Khan appeared and fired a volley of bullets at them. The six policemen, other than Jadhav, were all killed quickly in the gunfire.

ATS Chief Hemant Karkare, Ashok Kamte, ACP Salaskar and others died in fighting the Mumbai attacks, on 26 November 2008 .The chief of ATS Hemant Karkare was honoured with a posthumous Ashok Chakra award on January 26, 2009 for his act of bravery.

His wife Kavita Karkare, was a professor at the NSS B.Ed college, Tardeo. She suffered a massive brain hemorrhage on 27 September 2014 and soon slipped into the coma. Thereafter she died on 29 September 2014, at age of 57. The Karkares are survived by their two daughters, Jui Navare and Sayalee, and son, Aakash.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemant_Karkare