Last fortnight, a group of five police
officers were found eating, drinking and dancing in a Christmas
party thrown by a mafia don. The television footage left people in
little doubt whose party the cops belonged to.
With mega-bucks all around, big business,
Bollywood and oodles of glamour, the merciless mafia - of all
colours - and a police force willing to look the ‘other way’ — all
makes Mumbai sinfully attractive to all.
The lure of lucre has not spared even
high-ranking officials who were caught in various shady dealings - a
few escaped punishment while others continue their encounters with
the law.
Chhota Rajan Nikhalje, an absconding
mafia don, speaking to some television channels some time ago from
an unknown location, shocked viewers by recounting how some police
officers (he named Pradeep Sharma) were on the mafia payroll and how
they worked to suit the interests of their paymasters.
A grim Chief Minister Ashok Chavan Friday
said that “officers like (Pradeep) Sharma were a blot on the entire
police force”.
Reacting to the arrests, Chavan said the
government would take necessary steps to ensure the police force is
not demoralised by such officers.
The Mumbai Police’s Hall of Shame has
some prominent occupants.
They include former city Police
Commissioner R.S. Sharma who was nabbed in connection with the
infamous multi-billion rupees Telgi fake stamp-papers scam and
discharged from the case in 2007.
Another former Police Commissioner R.D.
Tyagi was slapped with murder charges in the Sulaiman Bakery firing
case, and is currently on bail as the matter continues in the court.
The former joint Police Commissioner of
crime, S.S. Wagal was also nabbed in connection with the Telgi scam
and is still undergoing trial.
But the then Deputy Commissioner of
Police (DCP) Pradeep Sawant, who was also implicated in the same
case, got a discharge and is now back in service as Anti-Terrorist
Squad DCP.
A former Additional Director-General of
Police with the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Rahul Gopal was caught
by his own department after unaccounted cash of Rs.100,000 was found
in his custody. He was arrested and is now out on bail.
A former Additional Police Commissioner
A.K. Jain was also found guilty in an ACB case and dismissed from
service 12 years ago.
Another Additional Commissioner of Police
Bipin Behari faced suspension in 2008 for framing a builder Rajendra
Chaturvedi in a false case.
The former DGP S.S. Virk of Punjab and
Maharashtra - the only person to hold the top police post in two
states in the country - was also under a cloud with allegations of
corruption against him.
However, the Punjab police could not
gather sufficient evidence to nail him and the highly-decorated
daredevil officer was repatriated to his Maharashtra home cadre and
became DGP.
Besides these officers who faced
corruption charges, there were the ‘elite’ among the lower ranks -
the trigger-happy ‘encounter specialists’ - who were idolized by the
public and lionized by the media.
Among them were; Sub-Inspector Daya Nayak,
currently under suspension in an ACB inquiry with 90 encounter
killings to his credit (and a movie based on his exploits “Ab Tak
Chhappan”).
Then, assistant police inspector Sachin
Vaze, accused of murder and fabricating evidence in the Khwaja Yunus
murder case, resigned. His resignation has not yet been accepted.
There is Praful Bhosale, also implicated
in the Khwaja Yunus case. He is under suspension but there is lack
of sufficient evidence against him, so he is likely to be
reinstated.
Aslam Momin was sacked from the force in
2005 for alleged links with the mafia, especially the Dawood Ibrahim
gang, but he has challenged it before the Bombay High Court.
Ravindra Angre spelt death in
neighbouring Thane district, but was sent to jail after a builder
complained against him for extortion, kidnapping and robbery. He is
presently under suspension.
Former Mumbai police commissioner Julio
Ribeiro says that all these officers accused on various counts are
the outcome of middle-class social pressures.
“The middle-class wants to be rid of
goons, they pressurize the political leaders who in turn adopt a
tough stand with the police and give them a free hand. In the
process, vested interests develop and this is the outcome. Even the
different gangs welcome the so-called ‘encounter specialists’ as
they help eliminate rivals,” Ribeiro told IANS.
In his opinion, unless the top police
brass like commissioners or DGPs are given a free hand to instil
discipline, the situation will not change.
“It would be wrong to suggest that
Maharashtra’s record of tarnished policemen is high - it suffers the
same level of politicization as any other Indian state,” he
asserted.
As far as corrupt practices go, the state
police have ranked either first or second - the main competitor
being the revenue department - in the ACB’s annual break-up of the
most corrupt departments in the state.
Also, on an average, over a dozen
inspector level cops are either suspended or dismissed from service
in the state each year. The figures for the lower constabulary are
much higher.