Despite the row over his functioning style, Patnaik surprised all with his rough answers on camera to the questions raised by journalists.
No matter what anyone says, police commissioner Arup Patnaik will continue to say it exactly as he sees it. This was clear from the commissioner’s statements at Tuesday’s press conference to release the annual crime statistics.
Despite the row over his functioning style, Patnaik surprised all with his rough and ready answers on camera to the questions raised by journalists. Asked about hawala funds being used during polls and the builders funding political parties, Patnaik replied with his trademark sarcasm: “In Mumbai everything is hawala. Builders ka toh khudka haal kharaab hai, that’s why the extortion rate has come down drastically.”
When the commissioner was asked about his alleged tiff with senior officers, he flew into a rage. “It’s only the media that says other senior officers are angry with me. If there is any complaint against me, then the officers have to follow the procedure.” As per this procedure, all plaints to the home department from within the force have to be routed through the commissioner’s office. “Till now, nobody has sent any plaint,” he insisted.
Throughout the conference Patnaik didn’t miss a single opportunity to make it clear that he remains the boss of the city police. “I have the authority to suspend anybody if he is at fault,” the chief said. “If there is any complaint, then people have to approach me for the right action.”
Asked about officers from the so-called “commissioner’s squad” being involved in corruption, Patnaik denied having created any such squad. “I never created any such squad; it’s the media which created it. We never had any problems with the crime branch. Those, too, were created by you guys,” he thundered. Sitting right next to him was crime branch boss Himanshu Roy.
All the additional and deputy commissioners of police could be seen enjoying the way Patnaik was handling the media, while the three joint commissioners, Roy, Rajneesh Seth (law and order) and Vivek Phansalkar (traffic) were seen smiling.
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