`Coward' Mumbai policemen to face action

Judge M L Tahaliyani, while delivering the judgement in the 26/11 case, had severely criticised some policemen, including officers, for their inaction during the assault.

Policemen indicted by a special court for "running away" instead of fighting the terrorists during the 26/11 attacks here are likely to face action.

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"I have read media reports which stated that the honourable judge had criticised some police personnel (of Azad Maidan Police Station in South Mumbai), saying they had not acted properly in stopping the terrorists during the terror attacks. But I am yet to get the copy of the judgement," Police Commissioner D Sivanandan said.

He said, "I will go through the copy and if I find the officers were not up to the mark and ran away from fighting the terrorists, I will take appropriate action against them."

Judge M L Tahaliyani, while delivering the judgement in the 26/11 case, had severely criticised some policemen, including officers, for their inaction during the assault.

He had noted that instead of coming to the aid of Additional Commissioner Sadanand Date, who engaged the terrorists in a gunfight at Cama Hospital and got injured, some policemen, including Inspector Yashwant Thorawade and Constable Suresh Kadam, possibly "ran away" and did not fight the militants.

"This definitely is cowardliness and lack of devotion towards duty," the Judge had remarked.

The police station is just a stone's throw away from Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and Cama Hospital, where Ajmal Kasab and his companion Abu Ismail killed several people.