RR Patil backs police chief

A week after the deputy chief minister, Ajit Pawar blamed Pune’s police commissioner, Meeran Chadha Borwankar for failing to curb post-civic election violence effectively, home minister RR Patil came out in support of the Pune police and the police chief.

Patil, who inaugurated a sweet mart in Swargate area on Thursday, told the media, “The city police are doing well despite manpower crunch. There is no need to argue on the law-and-order situation. If the police is lacking at a particular point of time, we cannot draw any conclusion.”

Later in the evening, Patil held a closed-door meeting with the police commissioner, additional commissioner of police (crime) Anant Shinde and superintendent of police (Pune rural) Shahji Solunke at the Circuit House. When contacted later in the night, Borwankar said, “It was a general crime review meeting that went on for about 45 minutes.”

Reacting to the rumours about the ‘monkey man’, which are spreading in Mumbai, Patil said the Mumbai police have formed special teams to probe into the matter and investigations are on. When asked whether he was going to resign as guardian minister of Gadchiroli district, Patil said the rumours were baseless.