Taradgaon village mourns death of Ajitdada’s ‘shadow’ PSO Vidip Jadhav

Kolhapur: Taradgaon, a village in Satara's Phaltan tehsil, was cloaked in a pall of gloom following the death of 37-year-old Vidip Dilip Jadhav, Ajit Pawar's PSO. Vidip, who was also called ‘Ajit Pawar's shadow', died in a plane crash along with the deputy CM and others on Wednesday morning. His mortal remains were brought to his ancestral village on Wednesday night, nearly 14 hours later, and he was cremated with full state honours around 11.45pm.During his funeral, his childhood friends said they could not even recall when Vidip, lovingly known as Balu, became ‘Balasaheb'.Close friends and relatives said Vidip had joined Ajit Pawar's personal security in 2009. Previously, he served on Devendra Fadnavis's personal security team from 2014 to 2019. He joined the police force in 2019, but, broad-shouldered and quick in movement, Vidip was chosen for personal security first for a high court Judge. As part of a personal security detail, Vidip had a tight schedule, and his friends used to urge him to go back to a nine-hour duty as a policeman. He, however, used to reject the idea straight away, saying he liked to protect VIPs.Harish Chavan, one of Vidip's childhood friends who now works for an IT company in Hinjewadi, said, "He was truly a selfless person. He used to help anyone without knowing them personally, but only at the request of his friends. We were a group of ix friends, and our friendship was such that if even one was missing from the evening stroll, the villagers used to ask the others," said Chavan.Jadhav studied till Class X in his village school, and then joined a Phaltan-based junior college for Classes XI and XII. After that, he joined a preparatory academy and succeeded in joining the Mumbai Police at just 20 years of age. His father is a retired school employee, and his mother is a homemaker. His wife, a pharma graduate, works in a private company. They have an 14-year-old daughter and a 9-year-old son. All of them lived in an apartment in Kalwa. Vidip had told his friends that he would be coming to the village to cast his vote for the ZP election."When the incident took place, I got 30 to 40 calls while I was going to the office. I picked the calls after taking the car off the road. These were calls from people whom Vidip had helped through his relationship with Ajitdada. None of these 40-odd people had met Vidip, as he was ready to help and was just a call away. Without any purpose, he used to take me or one of our friends sometimes to meet Ajitdada, just to show his boss his friends. Ajitdada also had a special liking for him and used to take him with him every time," said Chavan.