Tag: rr patil

Categories
Event

Skits for self defence…

…at Bhaidas Hall today, as the Mumbai Police continue its sensitisation programmes to curb increasing numbers of crimes against women.

Girl students from across the city are expected to attend a sensitisation programme organised by the Mumbai Police, to raise awareness about increasing crimes against women in the ciyt, as also how can defend themselves in times of an assault. The programme takes place today at Juhu’s Bhaidas Hall and will be a four-hour programme which will also see attendance from members of several Women Vigilance Cells in the city.

Interestingly, three skits are to be performed at the programme, organised by students of Mithibai College, police officers and by professional stage artists under the direction of renowned theatre veteran Makrand Deshpande.

Additionally, Bollywood actors Shabana Azmi and Rani Mukerji are expected to address the audience, as also State Home Minister RR Patil, Mumbai University Vice Chancellor Dr Rajan Velukar, and Mumbai Police Commissioner Dr Satyapal Singh.

(Picture used for representational purpose only) 

Categories
Big story

Dhoble transfer issue hots up

Public support for recently-transferred cop increases daily; if probe absolves Dhoble of wrongdoing, he might be reinstated as ACP, Vakola.
by the Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Vasant Dhoble is one lucky man. Transferred by the Chief Minister following the death of a hawker during a hawker eviction drive last week in the suburbs, the controversial cop is receiving tremendous support from all quarters – most recently from the Congress’ ally in the State, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

Yesterday, NCP leader and State Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar had jokingly agreed to support CM Prithviraj Chavan’s decision to transfer Dhoble from Vakola to the police control room following the hawker’s death – the post mortem report reveals he died of a brain haemorrhage, and not of cardiac arrest, as originally surmised – but today, Pawar took a different line altogether. “We should not transfer a person wrongly,” he said. “If the probe (initiated into the incident by the Home Department) does not show that Dhoble was responsible (for the hawker’s death), he will be reinstated with immediate effect,” he added.

Interestingly, Home Department chief RR Patil, who also belongs to the NCP, had said yesterday that the decision to transfer Dhoble was a welcome one, since it would “help in an impartial probe’.

Meanwhile, the rabble-rousing cop himself has chosen to keep a low profile since his transfer, refusing to comment even on the support from such parties as the Shiv Sena and the MNS, which surprised all by actually uniting over the issue of his transfer.

‘Bring him back’

Residents and local corporators of the area under Dhoble’s purview as ACP have reacted strongly to the cop’s transfer. This morning, two separate ALMs in Vile Parle had initiated signature campaigns in support of Dhoble. The signatures are to submitted to the Chief Minister. “We are extremely pleased with his performance as a cop in our area,” said Vile Parle resident Rohini Gupte (53). “I have lived in Vile Parle all my life, and after Dhoble came here and started cracking down on illegal hawkers, we saw the footpaths on our streets for the first time. It is wrong to transfer a police officer who is doing his job for the betterment of an area.”

Senior citizens, especially, profess to be more than satisfied with Dhoble’s stint as ACP. “Even before, when he was posted at Goregaon, he was very popular with the local residents because he came down very heavily on wrong activities,” said MS Prakash (69). “If a police officer is carrying out his duties and he gets punished for it, then why should the police do any work at all? I strongly feel that the Government should reconsider and bring him back, instead of deputing him to some ordinary post.”

(Picture courtesy intoday.in)

 

Categories
Deal with it

Mumbai’s Hockey India League team moved to Delhi

State promises security to Pak players who’ve moved to Delhi following Shiv Sena’s protests against their inclusion in Mumbai game.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

The ongoing fracas between India and Pakistan’s armies at the border has claimed its first victims in far-flung Mumbai. The  Hockey India League (HIL), an IPL-style hockey tournament which was scheduled to have a match in Mumbai on Sunday, ran into security tangles when about 100 Shiv Sena workers started protesting outside a stadium that the Mumbai Magicians team was practicing in. This team has four Pakistani players in its side; there are a total of nine Pak players in the League’s five teams.

Sensing that the protests could escalate and cause security issues for the visitors, the organisers of HIL decided to whisk the team away from the city. The team has been sent to Delhi for practice, and schedules are being reworked to accommodate the Sunday match at Delhi. As things stood, said the HIL, it was too soon to comment on whether other Mumbai matches featuring teams with Pak players on board would be cancelled or held elsewhere.

Following the protests, the Mumbai police reportedly swung into action and announced a security cordon for the team, but the  management conveyed its decision to move to Delhi.

“The players have left Mumbai. Once we hear what the management’s future plans for Mumbai matches are, we can discuss the necessary security arrangements at that time,” said Ravindra Shishve, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone I).

However, the State’s Home Minister, RR Patil, said that the Pakistani players would be given full security when they played in Mumbai and Maharashtra. “We assure them (the Pakistani players) of full protection for their matches so that nobody can disrupt play,” he said.

(Picture courtesy dawn.com)

 

Categories
Big story

Kya hua tera waada?

State Government has still not taken action against errant cops who had arrested two Palghar girls for a Facebook post.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

The two-day deadline set by Maharashtra State Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan for declaring the action his government would take in the matter of two Palghar-based girls arrested for a post on Facebook, has ended. And still, there is no word from Chavan or the State Home Minister RR Patil on what action they are contemplating against the alleged high-handed police action in arresting the girls, one of whom had questioned the shutdown of Mumbai following Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray’s death, and the other, who had ‘liked’ the comment.

In fact, the ongoing political tussle between the Congress and the NCP in the State has once again come to the fore with both sides using the Palghar arrests episode to deflect blame on the other. This could explain the NCP’s Nawab Malik exonerating RR Patil from blame with the comment, “RR Patil did not order the arrest of the two girls.” Meanwhile, the CM has declined to comment on the matter as yet.

It is now learnt that the Home Department is seeking legal counsel in the matter; RR Patil says that his department is considering making it mandatory for the police to seek legal opinion before making arrests falling under the purview of ‘hurting of sentiments’, and that he would approach the Centre to seek clarity on the IT Act, so that such arrests would be avoided in the future.

 

 

 

 

Categories
Big story

RR Patil defends police on Palghar arrests

Congress ministers corner Home Minister RR Patil over the arrests of two Palghar-based girls over Facebook post; RR defends cops.

It was a big day for State Home Minister RR Patil – 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab had been hanged, there was appreciation all around for the secrecy that the entire operation was kept under, and personally, it was part-closure on a chapter that had previously ousted Patil from the same position he occupied in 2008. However, at a Cabinet meet held yesterday, it wasn’t Kasab but the recent arrests of two girls at Palghar that caused a dispute among Congress ministers and Patil.

For those who came in late, the arrests – of Palghar residents Shaheen Dhada and Reenu Shrinivasan – were made after a 21-year-old girl, Shaheen, protested on Facebook against the lockdown of the city after Shiv Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray’s death last Saturday. Her friend Reenu had ‘liked’ Shaheen’s post. After a police complaint against the two girls was filed by Palghar shakha pramukh Bhushan Sankhe, the two girls were questioned, then arrested, before being let off on bail.

“Officers followed the law”

At the weekly Cabinet meeting held at the Mantralaya yesterday, three Congress ministers – Dr Nitin Raut, Minister for EGS and Water Conservation, Naseem Khan, Minister for Textiles, Minorities Development and Waqf, and Varsha Gaikwad, Minister for Women and Child Development, demanded to know why the girls had been arrested for “a general opinion on Facebook”, and that strong action be taken against the police officers involved and they be suspended.

Ever since the arrests, Patil has been seen as trying to defend the police action, and trying to shift blame on to the IT Act itself, under which the girls were charged. Yesterday, however, Patil got into a war of words with Khan, again defending the officers for being trained adequately on the provisions of the IT Act. Khan had earlier said that there was no need for the government to wait for the inquiry report on the matter before taking action against the errant cops, since it was clear that the police had acted in a high-handed manner. “There was a heated argument between RR Patil and Naseem Khan over the authenticity of the police action against the girls for their comments on Facebook,” said a note issued by the Chief Minister’s office on yesterday’s Cabinet meeting.

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister will receive the inquiry report from the Konkan IG today. In the Cabinet meet, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan is said to have noted that the incident had brought infamy to the police department.

(Picture courtesy www.hindubusinessline.com)

 

 

 

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