Vasant Dhoble – The Metrognome

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)

Controversy of the year

Vasant Dhoble played Bad Cop to the hilt this year, riling Mumbai citizens but gaining popularity with the anti-pub brigade.

by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Part 9 of the Yearender Diaries

As policing went, this was a strange year for Mumbai. Crimes against women went through the roof in 2012, but while the police showed ineptitude in preventing these crimes, there were a few notable and quick arrests within days of most of these crimes occurring. Similarly, the police had some success in nabbing certain chain-snatching gangs, house-breaking units, Nigerian drug peddlers, and Bangladeshi immigrants living in Mumbai without valid paperwork.

On the other hand, there was Vasant Dhoble.

Dhoble (57), heading the Social Service Branch (SSB) of the Mumbai Police, made a terrific noise this year, armed with his ‘special’ brand of discipline using a hockey stick and video cameras. He conducted raids at several city hotspots this year, Cafe Zoe and Shiro being the most notable examples, while also allegedly attacking the manager of Amar Juice Centre at Juhu with a hockey stick for conducting his business after midnight.

As far as logic went, Dhoble’s was simple – “We are only enforcing the law. We have not told anybody not to enjoy the nightlife. But nobody, citizens or establishment owners, must break the law,” he said, when we spoke to him earlier this year. “And if I am to be blamed for enforcing archaic laws, what can I do? As a member of the police force, I have to lay down the laws that are framed, I cannot change the laws on my own.”

So the city’s popular night spots witnessed raids on grounds of playing loud music and disturbing the peace, DJs playing music without the licence to do so, establishments admitting more patrons than allowed to, patrons consuming alcohol without valid liquor permits, and so on. On some occasions, patrons were rounded up for questioning, and in one case, two women who were rounded up with several others after a Dhoble raid, later pressed charges for defamation. “The women were soliciting customers at the bar,” Dhoble said, even as protests erupted about the women being wrongly detained and defamed as being prostitutes.

The cop’s seemingly high moral compass – he famously said early this year that it was the police’s job to protect the young from corrupt influences such as drink and drugs – would even have been grudgingly appreciated save for the glaring blemishes on Dhoble’s career. He was suspended from service in 1989 for accepting a bribe while on a posting in Pune. Five years later, his role in a custodial death landed him with seven years in prison and a Rs 1,00,000 fine, but he got away without serving the jail sentence. Dismissed from the force that year, he was reinstated two years later. A few months later, he was also accused of being lax with an important file related with a Dawood Ibrahim investigation.

Most officers in the police force did not agree with Dhoble’s methods, especially the hockey stick he carried on most raids. When asked why he kept a hockey stick in his office, he shrugged and said, “I like to play hockey.” However, then Police Commissioner Arup Patnaik was a staunch supporter of Dhoble, who is also said to be extremely well-connected in political circles. Which was why, despite Mumbai outraging over every successive Dhoble raid, there was no reactive response from the Police or the State Government.

Before the city woke up to the cop’s antics in earnest, Dhoble even gave a few interviews in which he spoke against the youth adopting lifestyles that were against Indian culture, wearing clothes that demeaned their parents and took up habits that corrupted society, and that he would not allow the young to be “influenced” and that they must be “saved”. However, following the backlash to these comments, he quickly adopted a man-of-few-words stance, replying to reporters’ questions in practiced one-liners, not revealing details of raids conducted, and explaining in detail only the laws and sections of the law that he and his team tried to uphold.

Even as protests against him grew, especially on social media, there emerged an equally strong lobby for Dhoble. This largely comprised members of housing associations that have been campaigning for years against the nuisance caused by pubs and bars in residential areas of the city.

Then Patnaik was shunted out following the Azad Maidan riot this year, and the new Police Commissioner, Dr Satyapal Singh, wasted no time in getting Dhoble out of his SSB posting. Dhoble is now ACP of the Vakola Division.

(Picture courtesy mid-day.c0m)

‘Diaries’ is a series of stories on one theme. The Yearender Diaries seek to capture the most telling moments, happenings and people in the city this year. Look out for Trend of the Year tomorrow.