HC asks state for details on strength of police force

Referring to the steady rise in the population of Maharashtra, the Bombay high court on Tuesday asked the state government to submit information on the strength of police officers and personnel and number of officials added to the police force from 2001.

Referring to the steady rise in the population of Maharashtra, the Bombay high court on Tuesday asked the state government to submit information on the strength of police officers and personnel and number of officials added to the police force from 2001.

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“With regard to the increase in population, an addition to the police force in both Maharashtra and Mumbai over the past 10 years needs to be looked into,” a division bench of justice BH Marlapalle and justice UD Salvi said.

The bench has directed the government to submit a categorised list of the number of police officials and personnel added to various departments like crime branch, law and order, VIP security, anti-terrorism squad (ATS) and CID among others.

Public prosecutor Pandurang Pol told the court that specialised branches like crime branch, ATS and CID are overburdened, to which justice Marlapalle said, “Obviously, the number of officers for crime investigation and law and order should be higher.”

The affidavit has to be filed within two weeks.

The court was hearing a petition filed by one Ashwini Rane, seeking a CBI probe into the murder of her husband, Nikhil Rane, a Pune-based builder.

Rane was shot dead on November 23, 2009. He succumbed to the bullet injury in Pune's Sancheti Hospital. However, when investigations had made no breakthrough, his wife Ashwini moved the high court seeking transfer of the probe to CBI.