Police asked not to do moral policing

The Mumbai police has been directed not to indulge in moral policing and not to intervene between quarrelling couples.

Speaking to mediapersons on Friday, Deven Bharti, joint commissioner of police, law and order, said he had given instructions to his force over the same.

Mr Bharti is in charge of all the police stations under Mumbai police.Mr Bharti added that the Bombay Police Act, which is applied by the police for moral policing could be used only if there is soliciting going on like in the Aksa area of Malad. Another officer added that moral policing would take place only on instructions of senior officers if a particular couple, “crosses the limits of decency” in public.

Mr Bharti was talking to the media after the inquiry report on the assault of a young couple by policemen inside the Andheri police station on November 2 was submitted to him.

The violent behaviour of Andheri police with the couple, which showed the police assaulting the man, had gone viral on social media and made national headlines. The video clearly showed the police assaulting the man who accompanied the woman.

A senior police official requesting anonymity said, “Some action will be initiated against the responsible policemen.” When the incident had come to light earlier this month, zonal deputy commissioner of police, zone X, Vinayak Deshmukh had said, “While separating (the couple) if they had been violent, then appropriate action would have been taken.”

The young couple in question had not committed any crime but was quarrelling with each other under the influence of alcohol. The police had not received any complaint but rounded them up and took them to the police station in the wee hours because they were creating fracas near the Andheri railway station.

Senior police inspector, Nandkumar Dhumal of Andheri police said, “Our men were only trying to separate them so we could question them independently just to know their identity and where they came from. But the gentleman caught the lady from the back and was not letting her go at all. Then the policemen started pulling him. This is when a person, with a prior criminal record, started recording the video and made it viral to get back at the police.”