Maharashtra CM suspends 4 cops for false report on dance bar licences

Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has suspended four police officers for giving a false report on the applications filed by dance bars for renewal of licences. These officers allegedly gave a false report in favour of dance bars even though they had not complied with the conditions set by the government for renewal of permits.

“The police officers from police stations were asked to verify whether the dance bar owners have complied with the stipulated conditions and whether their permits could be renewed as per the Supreme Court’s directives. But it was found that some officers gave favourable reports for dance bar owners without even carrying out the physical verification. Three police inspectors and an assistant police inspector have been suspended in this connection,” an official from the chief minister’s office said.

According to the CMO, when the reports sent by the officers were cross-checked, it was found that officers from Chembur, Bhandup, Mulund and Tardeo police stations had sent incorrect reports.

“It was found that in some cases, the dance bar owners had not complied with the 26 conditions affirmed by the SC.

In other cases, fire safety norms were not complied with. There were also cases where renewal of the dance bar permit was sought for a place where no dance bar existed. Officers had not carried out site inspections and did not check the records of persons applying for renewal of permits,” the official said.

In the wake of the Supreme Court order on resumption of dance bars in Maharashtra, the state government has granted licences to owners of four such bars. The apex court had on March 2 rejected certain suggestions like providing live CCTV footage to the police of performances in the dance bars and asked the state government to grant licences to owners within 10 days after they comply with the modified guidelines. The Maharashtra Police had earlier proposed that the owners would have to cover and segregate the bar area from the dance area and provide them the CCTV footage of the performance of women artistes.