Thane Police cleans house, transfers 49 blacklisted cops

It was during a raid at an illegal dance bar in the Shil Phata area last month that the Thane Police discovered how some of its own men were allegedly working hand in glove with the culpritsThane Joint Commissioner of Police V V Lakshmi Narayana ordered the transfer of 49 cops from the ShilDayghar police station for allegedly turning a blind eye to the illegal operations of a dance bar in their jurisdiction File picTaking decisive action yesterday Thane Joint Commissioner of Police CP V V Lakshmi Narayana ordered the transfer of 49 policemen including two officers from the ShilDayghar police station and ordered an inquiry into their roles in the racketBlack bookOn April 15 the special branch of Thane Police had carried out a raid at Utsav Bar and incredibly the force found a diary at the premises that not only had the names of all the crooked cops but also contained details of how much money they had taken to turn a blind eye to the illegal operations at the barAlso ReadOnduty Thane police constables caught on camera kissing bar girls ldquoWe had found a diary in the bar that mentioned that Senior Police Inspector R S Pawar of ShilDayghar police station took Rs 30000 monthly Inspector Uday Jadhav took Rs 10000 police naiks took Rs 5000 each hawaldars took Rs 3000 and other constables took Rs 1000 per monthrdquo said a cop on condition of anonymityAfter the diary was found the special branch showed the diary to Joint CP Lakshmi Narayana who in the past has investigated highprofile cases like the Satyam scandal the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy disproportionate assets case and the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter caseThe Joint CP immediately ordered the special branch to investigate the diary and its contents all of which was found to be true ldquoWe have transferred a senior inspector an inspector and 47 constables Wewill investigate into the matter now and presently we have appointed K D Katkar as the senior police inspector at the police stationrdquo said Joint CP Lakshmi NarayanaTarnished reputationThe ShilDayghar police station has mostly bars and more recently a lot of construction activity in its jurisdiction There have been past instances of disgraced cops from the station who supported illegal activity on both frontsAlso Read IPS officer Param Bir Singh takes over as new Thane police chiefSince 2013 this police station has seen three other senior cops transferred for allowing an illegal dance bar to run Senior Police Inspector Ashok Jagtap Assistant Police Inspector A P Banjale and Police Naik T D Borse In April 2013 in a separate case of illegal construction Senior Inspector K P Naik and a constable were suspended over a building collapse on April 4 2013 that killed 74 peopleThey had allegedly taken bribes to allow the illegal construction Apart from its sullied reputation the ShilDayghar police station now faces a more immediate problem with the transfer of 49 cops nearly half of its full strength of 100 the station is severely short staffed and the authorities will have to begin filling these vacancies soon