Mumbai:
An assistant inspector of Goregaon police station was caught on camera singing and grooving at a dance bar with bar girls.
Sudhakar Humbe arrived at his regular haunt Mansi Bar in Andheri. While letting his hair down, the assistant police inspector attached to Goregoan police station, got wasted, hopped on the dance floor and began gyrating to Marathi tracks. Giving him company in his shimmy-shakes and shoulder jigs were orchestra bar girls, doing the pelvic thrust around him. In short, he was having a memorable time.
Unfortunately for the cop, memorable became unforgettable, when his capers painting the town red were captured on video. In a two-minute grab, the API, is heard singing two songs, Shur aamhi sartaaj and Jai Jai Maharashtra Majha. While chanting, he is seen clutching a mic, commanding centrestage, as he charts a unique choreography to the numbers, some of them duly patriotic. In the footage, he appears gallons away from sober. The electrifying activity in the video peaks when Humbe does a jig. The bar girls flank and sway around him, cheering him on.
The owner of the bar, Arun Shetty, said, "I know the officer, but he has not been coming to our bar lately. I purchased the place some time ago and he was more frequent in his visits during the old owner's tenure."
Given Commissioner Arup Patnaik's now-famous soft spot for strict adherence to form and etiquette, the video may be anything but side-splitting for the cadres. For the record, the Bombay Police Act, 1951, has a code of conduct, which says that police personnel are on duty round the clock and as such, must refrain from any conduct unbecoming that of protectors of the law. Also, an inquiry may be initiated against such coarse bearing.
Advocate Abbas Kazmi of the Bombay High Court said, "A policeman, being a government servant, cannot sing and dance at a bar in this way. It is against their code of conduct. Public servants, behaving in this manner in public places, send a wrong message to society. They can be punished with disciplinary actions." Citing a past instance, he said, "Earlier, some officers had been suspended for attending a party thrown by a Chhota Rajan aide." Deputy Commissioner of Police Mahesh Patil said regarding his colleague, "We have to verify whether it is the same officer. We are conducting an inquiry and will take action accordingly."
Humbe denies that it is he in the video, right after attributing the incident to an act of unjust reprisal.
"Some people are against me as I have been raiding hookah bars after the commissioner ordered us to shut them down in the area. On some of these raids, a few proprietors had threatened me of dire consequences. I am sure they have released this video clip." He added, "I am not the person in it. This is a conspiracy against me."
Earlier this year, the Ministry of Home Affairs had suspended officers for attending a party organised by a Chhota Rajan aide in Chembur last year on Christmas eve. The officers who were suspended were DCP V N Salve (attached to Special Branch-1), ACP Prakash Wani, Inspector RS Khakale and Assistant Inspector Kholatkar.