MLA goons are reducing Mumbai police to a joke

Maharashtra’s home minister, the esteemed RR Patil told the Times of India on Thursday that the crucial CCTV footage of legislators assaulting policeman Sachin Suryavanshi inside the state Assembly may actually be inconclusive and may not even be needed. Patil told the Times of India that the director-general of police and the join commissioner of the crime branch have already seen the footage, and it doesn’t show clearly which legislators were present at the time of the incident. “There are a total of 28 cameras but they are not able to cover the entire premises,” said Patil. For those who came in late, here’s the case till now: [caption id=“attachment_678675” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] On 18 March, Traffic sub-inspector Sachin Suryavanshi stopped a speeding car on the Bandra-Worli Sea Link. Bahujan Vikas Aghadi MLA Kshitij Thakur was in the car and he had an argument with the officer. On 19 March, Suryavanshi was summoned to the Vidhan Bhavan after Thakur spoke about the issue there. He was then reportedly thrashed inside the Assembly premises by around 10-12 MLA’s including Thakur and MNS legislator Ram Kadam. On 21 March, Thakur and Kadam were arrested and produced before the Esplanade court which remanded them to a day’s judicial custody. On 25 March, they got bail for a mere Rs 15,000 while the policeman was suspended pending a preliminary home department inquiry. And now we come back to Patil saying that the footage of the CCTV cameras is inconclusive. So how does he explain the fact that the CCTV footage was not handed over to the police immediately? How does he explain the seven-day delay that would have allowed the accused to tamper with the evidence? How does he explain the policeman’s injuries? Would Patil now come out and say that the policeman fell down the stairs and no MLA was involved in the incident? There are so many questions and we have no answers. But it makes one wonder whether any one is asking the right questions? You have 28 cameras on the premises and none of them give any conclusive evidence. At any point, are we suggesting that the guilty MLA’s picked out the one place that none of the cameras cover? That would mean that this wasn’t just a crime or anger. It was well planned and isn’t that even worse? If the cameras don’t show the faces of the MLA’s who allegedly thrashed the officer, who was only doing his job, then do they at least show the faces of those standing around? Or was it a free-for-all party? Were they all wearing masks or is the quality of the CCTV cameras so bad? The eye-witnesses are most likely Mantralaya staffers. Can the police not get them to depose? After all, not giving evidence is as bad as harbouring a criminal. And last but not the least, what does it tell us about our police? If they can’t protect one of their own, how will they protect the people of this city? The Shiv Sena shuts down the city as it pleases, the MNS workers slap senior citizens and a coterie of MLA’s thrash a policeman at the Mantralaya. It just tells us everything that is wrong with the city. Today, Mumbai’s police force is facing a crisis of faith and it needed a strong leader to stand up for its own just as the politicians are doing. It needs a leader who tells the politicians that the law will take its own course. It needs a leader who will show even the politicians that the law is to be respected. It needs a leader who will inspire confidence even in the common man. For now, though, it seems all we have in place is a joke. And truth to be told, it’s not funny.