Dalit Protest: Why Mumbai Police failed during Maharashtra bandh

Cops had taken precautions for the 'bandh' by keeping a watch on suspects in their jurisdiction, but protesters chose other areas. Representation pic

A week after the Maharashtra bandh brought the city to a standstill, the police have realised why their prep to rein in violent protesters went awry: because the latter worked out a nifty plan to hoodwink law enforcement agencies simply by switching the areas they were supposed to protest in. Cops found this out after observing that 80 per cent of the arrested protesters did not belong to the jurisdiction where they were held.

The bandh on January 3 caused widespread violence and damage to property in several parts of the Mumbai

An officer said, "Out of the arrested accused, 80 per cent belong to another area. This is why cops couldn't get an idea of the extent of protests that were going to happen, which resulted in panic among the citizens. We have to keep this trend in mind in the future to avoid embarrassment."

Preparing in earnest
Cops had started preparing for the bandh since January 2, when the city witnessed spontaneous protests in the central and eastern suburbs, with demonstrators holding up traffic on the Eastern Express Highway for more than five hours, paralysing the area. "Whenever we learn about a protest in advance, we keep track of suspected protesters and try to have a dialogue with them, so that there is no violence or damage to property. We did the same before the bandh on January 3," said another officer.

Regardless, the next day was full of violence, especially in the eastern suburbs, where more than 60 private vehicles were damaged and Kanjurmarg railway station was ransacked. Cops had then begun a combing operation to trace culprits. They first analysed CCTV cameras, videos taken by officers during protests, and also those taken by citizens. With the help of this evidence, arrests started across Mumbai. The Mumbai Police has arrested more than 100 accused till now.

Only after arrests
But when did the cops learn about the protesters' trick? "When we verified the addresses of the suspected accused, we came across the fact that around 80 per cent of them didn't belong to our jurisdiction," said Sanjay Kale, senior inspector, Nehru Nagar police station. Echoing the same, senior inspector of Chembur police station J P Bhosale said, "We have registered five FIRs in the matter and arrested 15 accused. Almost half of the crowd came from outside our jurisdiction."

Keep track
None of the prep helped to avert damage or violence, especially in Vikhroli, Chembur and Govandi, from where most of the arrests were made. "The Govandi cops registered two cases and arrested 40 accused, out of whom 16 are minors. The Chembur cops arrested 15 protesters in five cases, while the Vikhroli Parksite police arrested 15. The Tilak Nagar cops are also investigating the violence," said a senior police officer.

100
No. of arrested protesters

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