Govt cautious on Dhoble shifting

Protests against the transfer of assistant commissioner of police Vasant Dhoble have led the state home department to sit on the file shunting him outside Mumbai.

Dhoble was transferred from Vakola division to the police control room after the death of a hawker during an anti-demolition drive.

Home department sources said home minister RR Patil was yet to take a decision on Dhoble’s transfer out of Mumbai. “Because of the punitive action that Dhoble has been taking against encroachers and unauthorised hawkers, many delegations have requested that Dhoble be retained in Vakola,” said the sources.

Asked about the transfer, the home minister directed queries to chief minister Prithviraj Chavan.

The transfer had become a political issue with parties like Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena raising objections. The parties also gave the issue a Maharashtrian versus non-Maharashtrian twist. While the Sena organised a rally against the transfer, Raj Thackeray’s party said north Indian politicians like Congress’s Kripashanker Singh use migrant hawkers as a vote bank.

The home department official opined that if Dhoble is found innocent in the inquiry, he should be posted back in Vakola.