Under severe flak from various quarters for questionable arrests of 61 persons, including 13 couples, for ‘indecent behaviour in public’ during raids on beach resorts and hotels in north Mumbai, the Maharashtra Government on Friday shunted out Additional Commissioner of Police Fateh Singh Patil, the police officer in-charge of the area, and posted him in Nanded district of Maharashtra.
The move to transfer Additional Commissioner of Police Patil out of Mumbai is being seen as a damage-control exercise undertaken by the BJP-led saffron alliance Government which had faced criticism from various quarters for the ‘moral policing’ indulged in the overzealous policemen posted in north Mumbai.
However, the State administration sought to play down the import of Patil’s sudden transfer from Mumbai to Nanded, by saying that the senior police officer had been transferred out of the metropolis because of administrative reasons and that his shifting had nothing to do with the recent controversial raids on hotels and resorts at Madh Island and Aksa beach, where 13 couples and 35 others had been arrested on charges of ‘indecency in public’ on August 6.