Tainted by scandal, discrimination, women SIs shifted

August 3: A year ago they were dubbed the most promising batch of women in the Mumbai police force and were inducted with great fanfare in ...

August 3: A year ago they were dubbed the most promising batch of women in the Mumbai police force and were inducted with great fanfare in the elite and till then completely male dominated Mumbai crime branch. Last Tuesday, five of these six “promising” women sub-inspectors were unceremoniously shunted out of the crime branch and parked at airport security after a sex scandal involving at least one of them threatened to rock the police establishment. The sixth woman was probably spared because she has been on maternity leave. As in most `scandals’ relating to sex, this one too started with innuendo, fuelling further gossip. And once the smoke spread the source of the fire too was located. In February-March this year, Sunil Madgaonkar alias Matya, a top-notch aide of Chhota Rajan, was lodged for interrogation at the CID lock-up and started boasting about his liaison with one of the women sub-inspectors.

On interrogation Matya refused to divulge the name of the woman but according to a senior police officer, “agreed to give an anatomical description.”

Perhaps confused, and certainly wary of bad PR, crime branch top bosses deemed it right to simply transfer all the five women sub-inspectors. The arbitrary action has however left the crime branch open to allegations of gender bias. All the concerned women have protested the lack of transparency and any sort of internal inquiry.

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Further, their excellent track-record in the nine months that they were inducted makes it more difficult for the senior officers to trot out explanations.

Initially the women were used as decoys. Subsequently the joint commissioner of police, crime, Ranjit Singh Sharma selected six of the best women from the force to work in challenging undercover operations. And most of them, by Sharma’s admission, rose to the challenge.

For instance, sub-inspector Vijaya Hiremath, one of the most enterprising of the lot recovered an AK-56, the only one to be unearth ed by the force in 1996. She was also instrumental in the arrest of Rehana Khan, an arms supplier for the Chhota Shakeel gunmen. Besides, as the investigating officer in what is now referred to as a Murgiwala case, she caught four Abu Salem gang members who were involved in the murder of Amirullah Khan, a poultry farm owner.

It was later discovered that one of the culprits in the murder was also involved in RDX landing in Mehsana in Gujarat.

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WSIs Sangeeta Shinde and Ragini Bhagwat caught the woman who decamped with Rs 50 lakh worth of jewellery from Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri at Opera House.

Both of them went to Selam in Tamil Nadu to track and bring the jewel thief to Mumbai. Besides that Shinde had recovered Rs 57 lakh worth copper wire from Thane and arrested an accused.

While Bhagwat had busted a racket of fake US dollars and arrested an accused, Geetanjali Puttol was part of Datta Samant murder investigation. Surekha Kapile , who busted a gang of motorbike thieves, recovered 24 motorbikes from the duo. Also, Kapile was a part of Thakkar murder investigating team. The WSIs also told Express Newsline of the harassment they faced at the hands of their male colleagues. “How is it that they are never questioned?” demanded one.

While their chief R S Sharma has no immediate answers, he explained, “The induction of WSIs were on an experimental basis. Since they can be better utilised elsewhere, they are transferred.”y