The Mumbai Police have ordered an inquiry and suspended a policeman after a video purportedly showing him threatening to implicate detained protesting students in a fake drug trafficking case went viral on social media, a Maharashtra home department official said on Thursday.
“Mumbai Police have ordered an inquiry into the matter and action will be taken after verifying the facts,” the official said. The policeman, Pawan Sangle, has been removed from his posting pending the inquiry.
In the video, Sangle, a Mumbai Police driver, is seen warning students that he would plant packets of drugs in their pockets. One of the detained students recorded the video in a police van after they were picked up from a protest site and uploaded on social media.
Opposition parties accused the police of intimidating students protesting in Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra over the exam irregularities and demanding the Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation.
State Congress chief Harshwardhan Sapkal led a delegation that met Maharashtra police chief Sadanand Date and Mumbai Police Commissioner Deven Bharti and demanded strict action against Sangle. He sought a wider probe. “An inquiry should ascertain whether anyone was implicated in similar fabricated drug cases in the past. The police must also investigate how such personnel access narcotic substances instead of acting against drug traffickers.”
Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena president Raj Thackeray and Nationalist Congress Party – Sharadchandra Pawar working president Supriya Sule demanded stringent action. “It is utterly terrifying to criminalise the country’s young generation, who are fighting for their rights, and threaten to destroy their lives and careers by planting drugs in their pockets,” Sule said in a post on X.
{{/usCountry}}Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena president Raj Thackeray and Nationalist Congress Party – Sharadchandra Pawar working president Supriya Sule demanded stringent action. “It is utterly terrifying to criminalise the country’s young generation, who are fighting for their rights, and threaten to destroy their lives and careers by planting drugs in their pockets,” Sule said in a post on X.
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