Police constable held red-handed with associate while trafficking MD drugs in Bhayandar

A police constable has been caught red-handed in drug trafficking within the jurisdiction of the Mira-Bhayandar, Vasai-Virar Police Commissionerate. Constable Prakash Pawar was arrested in Bhayandar East along with his associate Akhilesh Kumar while trafficking MD drugs.

The Commissionerate has long publicised its seizures of drugs worth crores of rupees in other states. The case has once again exposed a situation of "darkness under the lamp" in its own house. It comes shortly after the case of Pramod Kendre of Nayanagar, who ran a drug factory.

Earlier, it had come to light that Pramod Kendre, a constable at Nayanagar police station, had set up an MD drugs factory on his own farm in Latur. Now constable Prakash Pawar and Akhilesh Kumar have been caught trafficking drugs on a large scale. The exposure of this dark trade run under the cover of the uniform has caused widespread anger in the city.

Social activist Sushant Pawar has sharply criticised the Police Commissioner. He said the khaki-clad protectors have themselves become partners of the drug mafia, and the force's reputation has been dragged through the mud in public. According to Sushant Pawar, if trafficking cannot be stopped, the Police Commissioner should take moral responsibility and step down immediately.

Sushant Pawar said policemen's involvement in crime is no longer an exception but has become a whole chain. He also said there is open talk in the force and in the city that several senior police officers of the Commissionerate have very close and suspicious ties with drug traffickers. According to him, anti-drug action is merely for show while the mafia is given backing from within, and this suspicion is deepening.

Pawar asked, "If the protectors themselves become predators and push the younger generation into the pit of addiction, who will save the city?"

He said such incidents are undoing the hard work of thousands of policemen who do their duty honestly day and night, and the standing of the khaki. Sushant Pawar said any attempt to hush up the matter through a cursory inquiry, suspensions or transfers would not be tolerated. He demanded that personnel caught in the grip of drugs and in league with traffickers be dismissed from service outright.

Pawar also said the Police Commissioner should probe the entire Commissionerate and uproot the drug racket. If he is failing to stop trafficking and corruption in his own department, he should take moral responsibility and resign immediately, he said. He said that instead of branding social activists and journalists who raise their voice against this dark trade as "anti-police" and plotting to implicate them in false cases, the police should show strict action against the guilty in their own department.