Mumbai: The State Government has suspended three police inspectors and one assistant police inspector for filing false reports on the compliance conditions laid down for dance bars by the Supreme Court. A departmental inquiry has been also ordered against these officers.
These four officers had submitted compliance reports for four dance bars that were subsequently granted licenses by the administration. This was part of the larger process wherein the Mumbai Police was supposed to carry out a compliance check on 150-odd dance bars that have applied for licenses following the SC order.
Local police stations were supposed to carry out the inspections and then submit report on whether the necessary changes had been carried out so as to meet the SC guidelines. One such guideline was installation of CCTV outside the dance bar. After the shocking suspensions, the officers attached to the hotel branch have decided conduct their own inquiries before giving licenses.
An officer from the licenses department said the suspension order has come as a complete shock to all of them since they had been working hard to adhere to the court orders. “We have been struggling to get reports from the local police stations and on the basis of this input we had given the four licenses,” he explained.
But if the State Government is not happy with the local police stations conducting the inspections, then the only option for it is to do this on its own. “It is likely that a team will be formed by the Police Commissioner’s Office that will personally carry out the inspections and then decide on giving the licenses,” he said.
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When asked to comment on this, Pravin Agarwal, a dance bar owner said that such action only shows that the state government is outright opposed to the idea of starting these joints again. “If the dance bars have complied with the conditions and the police officers have given the report, then there is no reason for the State Government to take such a negative stand,” he said.
The officer explained that there is no question of showing any favors to a particular bar because they have to go strictly as per their compliance report. “It should be noted that while we have given licenses to four dance bars based on the compliance report, we have also rejected the applications of many others for not meeting the requirements,” he pointed out.
