Kukaev began his career in 1996 as a district inspector in the Uzgen district. He then worked in the rapid response department, and in 2002 he headed the police station in the village of Jazy. In 2005, he became the head of the investigative department at the same station, and from 2008 to 2016, he held the position of head of the department for combating cattle theft in the Osh region's police department. In 2016, he submitted his resignation and retired.
According to Kukaev, the word "legality" is associated by people with the work of the police, and unfortunately, due to some unscrupulous employees, citizens develop a negative perception of the entire system. "Since childhood, I dreamed of becoming a military man. But my father insisted that I study at the faculty of Russian language and literature, and after graduating from a pedagogical institution, I worked as a teacher for seven years. However, the economic difficulties after the collapse of the Soviet Union forced me to change my profession. I realized that I needed to look for new paths," he recalls.
After graduating from the secondary special school of the Ministry of Internal Affairs named after Major General of Police Zh. Shabirov in 1995, Kukaev faced a completely new reality. He saw how some people turned to crime, and this changed his perception of life. "Working in the police turns you into a psychologist. Murder is not something that everyone can do; there is always a mental state of the person behind it," he emphasizes.
Kukaev recounted an incident that occurred in 2003 when he headed the police station in Jazy. One of the locals, Abdu, was drinking alcohol and jokingly suggested to his friend to steal a horse. However, the conversation ended tragically: as a result of a quarrel, Abdu killed his fellow villager and then tried to cover up the crime by tying the body to a horse and burying it in a badger hole. He even wrote a fictitious letter in the name of the deceased to mislead the investigation. "But my intuition told me that the main suspect was indeed him," noted the lieutenant colonel.
Kukaev also mentioned another incident related to the disappearance of a woman in the village of Myrza-Ake, which lasted a whole year. The suspect, who also turned out to be a man, was detained as a result of a joint operation with a colleague. During the investigation, it was revealed that he had killed the woman and then hid her body in a cesspit. "After his confession, we found the body, which had been there for a year," the policeman adds.
The former lieutenant colonel recalls a high-profile crime that occurred in 2005 when he was the head of the investigative department in Uzgen. A man was found dead with severe head injuries. The investigation led to a 19-year-old suspect who confessed to the murder, explaining his actions as a response to humiliations from the victim. "This shows how words can ruin a life," Kukaev emphasizes.
He also expresses that he does not want his son to become a policeman, even though he has dreamed of it since childhood. "I have experienced many difficulties in my profession and would not want my son to face the same problems," he admits. In his career, Kukaev has never regretted choosing the path of service in law enforcement. "If I had to choose again, I would still choose this profession, but perhaps I would approach the work differently," he concludes.
In 2016, influenced by his father's teachings about honesty and serving the people, Kukaev decided to retire.
