Party over as Mumbai’s ‘Dabangg’ cop calls it a day

Party over as Mumbai’s ‘Dabangg’ cop calls it a day
By: Menaka Rao

Hated by many, revered by a few. ACP Dhoble wore his khaki one last time on Saturday



If a bar somewhere in Mumbai is offering free shots to regulars over the weekend, it could have to do with goodbyes at the Mumbai Police Commissionerate.
On Saturday, `nightlife-spoiler’ ACP Vasant Dhoble relaxed his rigid manner, allowing visitors into his room at the Missing Persons’ Bureau on the second floor of Mumbai police’s Crawford Market headquarters, warmly shaking hands one last time.
He had a good five hours to go on duty, but most callers, including a journalist with a foreign newspaper, were curious about what he’d do next. “Well, immediately, I’m planning to pay Arup Patnaik a visit,“ he says, referring to an afternoon trip to The Maharashtra Police Housing and Welfare Board office in Worli, where his supporter and former Mumbai police commissioner serves as managing director after being shunted out of the top job following the 2012 Azad Maidan riots.
Revealing precious little is Dhoble’s peculiarity, whether it’s random chatter or details of a raid which he preferred conducting in plain clothes with a lean team of barely two constables.
In a career spanning 39 years, the 58-year-old found infamy -labelled `Mumbai’s Dabbang’ by newspapers -as the hockey stick-wielding party pooper who’d conduct close to 30 raids a week. Habitual party-goers were found scrambling for drinking permits thanks to him highlighting the archaic Bombay Prohibition Act, 1949. When he took over as head of the Social Service Branch (SSB) in February 2011, Dhoble split Mumbai opinion down the middle. While the liberals booed him for booking patrons of pubs for prostitution (he picked up German nationals at Colaba bar Voodoo in April 2012), the conservative middle-class lauded his social cleansing exercise. The first collected in thousands at Carter Road shouting, “Dhoble, go back!“ The latter bestowed him with the `Santacruz Ratna’ for emptying the streets of illegal establishments and collecting Rs 70,000 in fine in less than two hours. He began trending on Twitter in 2012 when he raided hip Lower Parel bistro-bar, Café Zoe, sending its high-heeled guests scurrying back into their Audis.
“I’m pleased I was considered a terror by criminals. Streets would empty out when people heard I was coming,“ he says matter-of-factly.Not afraid to resort to extreme measures, he was often accused of violence. Juhu’s Amar Juice Centre’s Tushar Joshi wrote a letter to then home minister, RR Patil, arguing how crashing the kitchen as early as 10 pm and manhandling the cooks was permissible by law. A year prior in 2011, Yusuf Ghulamnabi Bhure, owner of Bandra’s Moghul Sarai, moved court after Dhoble slapped him, damaging his ear.

Jashas tase, a Marathi phrase for tit for tat has been his credo. It’s the reason retired police commissioner Julio Rebeiro is an inspiration. “He wrote a book called Bullet for Bullet. I agree with him. If a criminal fires on the unarmed, I cannot be expected to say, `Sir...’ meekly,“ he says.
The politeness may have come handy if he had gone with his original career choice. As a child growing up to farmer parents in Pargaon village of Pune district, he dreamed of being an advocate. “In college, I was part of the National Cadet Corps. In 1975, we were taken to Nashik for police training where I got selected for the force.“
The thrill of collecting evidence, effecting arrest and holding control (“I love it“) made his first posting as beat officer with VP Road police station, and the following years at Crime Branch, fulfilling.
The biggest blotch on his reputation dates back to 1994 when as assistant police inspector at DN Nagar police station, he was accused of the custodial death of an alleged thief, Abdul Gaffar Khan. He was handed out seven years imprisonment, a sentence that was later revoked by the Bombay High Court in 1996. Unfazed, Dhoble returned to Pargaon to keep himself busy with his old love, farming. “I knew I wasn’t involved. The happiest day of my career was when they reinstated me. I was finally back in the mainstream, among the people,“ he adds.

While most policemen fancy detection assignments, Dhoble had his eye set on law and order. “With maintaining law and order, I’m moving around the masses, visible to them. I like being with the public,“ he says.
But the desire to undo Mumbai’s moral bankruptcy, based largely on his personal ethics, never escaped him. “My parents taught me that corruption, smoking, drinking and eating meat is taboo. In fact, most members of my family are teetotallers.“ It’s this belief that makes the notion of nightlife incorrigible, he adds.
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