It’s been a year and a month since Vasant Dhoble -- looselydescribed by the pro-party kinds as The Bad Cop out to kill Mumbai’s nightlife, and by the conventional-types as The Good Cop out to reclaim Mumbai’s morality -- was shunted out of the Social Service branch to the police control room. And the vacuum he left behind is now brimming with the buzz of loud music, happy feet and late nights -- in merry breach of the laws he strove hard to enforce, or force on the public. In a weeklong operation, MiD DAY discovered that not a single pub, eatery or disco has been keeping the deadline; hookah parlours are still operating in Andheri, Khar and other suburbs despite a strict ban; and dance bars -- in grey territory with the court lifting the state’s ban on them but the government loath to give them its nod -- are open until early hours, with currency notes raining on the dancers.

Man of law: ACP Vasant Dhoble served the Social Service branch from March 14, 2011 to September 17, 2012