Political link hampers action extortionists’

MUMBAI, August 20: The Thane police commissioner Bhujangrao Mohite has blamed the police's low success rate in curbing rising extortion o...

MUMBAI, August 20: The Thane police commissioner Bhujangrao Mohite has blamed the police’s low success rate in curbing rising extortion on political patronage’ enjoyed by the extortionists. Speaking at the inauguration of a police station at Lok Gram, Kalyan (E), he lamented that the police force was being used as a go-between in the tussle between the executive and the judiciary.

“The politician rears extortionists, arms them and gets his cut only to turn back and blame the police for doing nothing whenever there is a public outcry,” he alleged. Extortion cases should be heard in the Sessions Court, he suggested, so that the accused do not take the cases lightly. “I have also suggested that every police station maintain history sheets on known extortionists to help keep a tab on them,” he said.

Mohite also criticised the manner in which way criminals use bail to escape conviction even after committing repeated offences. “The whole idea of bail has been so highly commercialised that after takingpains to arrest an accused, he is out in no time,” claimed Mohite, adding that “Everything, the panchas at the panchanama, the lawyers and even the arguments are settled before hand”.

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Mohite also made a strong pitch for modernising the police force. “Criminals are equipped with arms and mobile phones, while we don’t even have the technology to intercept the calls,” he pointed out. Mohite also suggested that the police force concentrate on improvement in physical fitness, investigative skills and reflexes. “Apart from extortion, the prominent problems affecting the areas coming under the commissionerate include dacoities and petty thefts,” he pointed out.

Those who attended the programme included state Tourism Minister Jagannath Patil, who helped finance the construction of the police station through his MLA fund, Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation commissioner Madhukar Kokate and local corporator Vasant Suryawanshi, besides other senior police officials.