Smuggled alcohol from Daman: Deputy superintendent of police dismissed

Ashok Baburao Dhavale, 57, deputy superintendent of police (DySP), has been dismissed from service after an inquiry. The order has been sent to the Maharashtra government for its approval.

Ashok Baburao Dhavale, 57, deputy superintendent of police (DySP), has been dismissed from service after an inquiry. The order has been sent to the Maharashtra government for its approval.

Sources said the office of the director general of police has released orders for Dhavale’s dismissal in connection with the 2007 bootlegging case, in which he was caught by excise department officials smuggling liquor in a police jeep. Dhavale was dismissed earlier as well, but was reinstated the following year after an administrative tribunal reversed the order.

Since a DGP cannot dismiss a DySP rank officer, the recommendation for Dhavale’s dismissal has been sent to the government, sources said.

On March 28, 2007, Dhavale, then posted at the Vikhroli police station as inspector, had made a diary entry stating he was going to court, but had gone out of the city in the official police vehicle. State excise officials from Thane, acting on an input, had caught Dhavale and three others with 19 liquor boxes worth Rs48,000 in the police’s Bolero jeep.

The liquor had been smuggled from Daman, where it is cheap since no sales tax or excise duty is levied. The police had then discovered that Dhavale used to regularly smuggled liquor from Daman.

Dhavale was subsequently dismissed by the DGP under article 311 of the Constitution. However, he challenged the dismissal and approached the Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal (MAT), which ordered his reinstatement in 2008.

“On the basis of a departmental inquiry on Dhavale, miscellaneous applications at MAT and the court’s order in December 2014, the DGP believed Dhavale deserved to be dismissed from service, and ordered all concerned departments to take necessary action,” a source said.

Dhavale joined the police as a sub inspector in 1979. He was promoted to the rank of deputy superintendent of police in 2010. He was posted at the protection of civil rights (PCR) cell.

Home dept has no records
When additional chief secretary (home) KP Bakshi was asked regarding the dismissal orders of DySP Dhavale, he said that his department has no records. He stated that it is an old case and their records were destroyed in 2012 Mantralaya fire. When contacted, DGP Sanjeev Dayal said that he is not in Mumbai.