In an another example of Mumbai Police going on moral policing spree, a youth and his female friend were humiliated and publicly abused in Ulhasnagar district. The incident happened on Saturday.
According to eye-witnesses, a senior police inspector from the Hill Line police station approached the couple who were seated in a rickshaw and started beating up the boy and verbally abusing the girl.
Senior police inspector Mohan Waghmare has been accused of thrashing a youth and abusing his friend, accusing them of getting involved in obscene activities. The couple was sitting inside an auto-ricksaw when some policemen asked them to step out following which the youth was beaten while the woman was abused.
Police inspector Waghmare said, “The local residents complained about the couple getting involved in obscene activities and therefore took an action against them.” The inspector however, refused the allegation that he beat up the man or hurled abuses at the woman.
No official inquiry has been ordered in the case.
In August this year, senior police officers were pulled up by then Mumbai police commissioner Rakesh Maria after a huge outcry against alleged incidents of moral policing.
On August 6, the police had dragged out 60 people from hotels and lodges in Mumbai’s Madh Island and Aksa area and took them to a police station, where they were allegedly humiliated and detained for hours.
Thirteen couples were fined for indecent behaviour in public and one young woman alleged that she was slapped by a woman constable when she refused to pay the fine.
The police have said they were acting on complaints by locals in the area who complained of “public indecency”, prostitution and drunk people creating a ruckus at the hotels.
After the outrage, police had said they will no longer take action against anyone under Section 110 (public indecency) of the Bombay Police Act, 1951.
