Aditya Srivastava, who played the popular character of Abhijeet, while talking to IANS, said, “At midnight 12.08 he left us. He got a reaction with a medicine due to which there was a problem on liver, and then there was a multiple organ failure situation. He was hospitalised for the past two-three days and yesterday he passed away. We had a long association with each other, it was like family. We were together for more than 20 years for the show. We used to meet on different occasions, and situations. The way he was on the screen, similarly he was in real life. ‘Bahut zinda dil tha’. He was jovial, caring, and a good friend. We are still in shock. We have spent a lot of time together. A team goes for a long time, when you have like-minded people together, and everything is smooth. He was a pillar of strength. Kisi bhi situation me khada rehne wala, or saath dene wala insaan tha. He used to make us laugh all day, crack jokes etc.”

The actor concluded by saying that the “core 'CID' team was like a family only.”

Hrishikesh Pandey, who played the character of Inspector Sachin, speaking to IANS said, “A lot of people showed that he got a heart attack and was hospitalised because of that. It's not like that. He had heart problems even when we were shooting together also. He was out of it, operated and done with that. Now, after Covid a lot of things have changed. His liver and kidneys were infected. Things deteriorated. Health was down. This happened. For a couple of months he was going through all this and this is what happened. Eventually, he was on a ventilator. So, it was not about a heart attack. We haven't even slept since the time it happened we all were there. We now just cremated. All my friends were there. That shows how good he was with everybody and everybody cared about him. We were all like family.”

Not just Hrishikesh Pandey, but many others from the ‘CID’ team went to the cremation of Dinesh Phadnis.

Speaking about the memories that he used to share with Dinesh Phadnis, Hrishikesh Pandey said, “I can only say we have lost a family member because so many years of our time we have spent together, eating together. So it’s been more than a family because of the kind of time we spent. We were always in touch even after CID we were always going to each others’ house. We had just met (too). So, it really feels bad and sad that one person is not there. But it is the beautiful memories that we have in our minds.”

Another member of the cast, Shraddha Musale, who used to play the character of Dr Tarika, couldn’t hold back her emotions while talking about Dinesh Phadnis. Talking to IANS, she said, “This was kind of sudden for us. Like we knew he was a little unwell, a little bit of liver and heart issues. For the past six months the health issues had increased a bit, so we knew that his health is not good. But in the past 3-4 days it has deteriorated more. He was hospitalised, but he was okay. Suddenly one night it got worse liver and kidney, then into heart. Then he had to be on the ventilator. We still had hopes, dialysis was also going on, but last night he passed away.”

Talking about their memories together, Shraddha Musale said, “We often get together. He didn’t come in the last few get-togethers, and he said that he is not keeping well. On phone we were in touch. And everybody, even the past CID officers, people very fondly remember him. He was the sweetest soul of today’s times. He was very pure at heart; and you rarely find such people. He was ‘dil ka saaf insaan’. We are very close to his wife also. She is a sweetheart too. What I feel is that we had a ‘dil se dil wala’ connection. We had many hearty one-on one talks with each other. He used to listen to everything that you share with him. We both used to talk in Marathi. The Marathi language brought us together. He used to bring tiffin from home. There used to be heart to heart conversations with him on sets, and also outside. We had an attachment with the star cast of the show, but there was also a one on one attachment with Dinesh ji. And that was something different.”

“I miss having those conversations with him. He had a particular place in the green room. Off set he used to wear a black T-shirt. I can visualise him right now at his place, doing his things, and talking,” concluded Shraddha Musale.

Without a doubt, Dinesh Phadnis was one of the most popular names when it came to ‘CID’. He was the one who used to bring a bout of laughter in the rather serious detective show. His comments and antics used to be so hilarious that you couldn’t stop yourself from laughing. His character Fredericks used to give a perfect balance to the show which had numerous emotions coming on back to back.

Dinesh Phadnis shall be deeply missed by not just his near and dear ones but the entire generation of people who grew up watching ‘CID’ and used to love Frederick.