As the new Comissioner, Sanjay Barve now finds himself in the same position as his predecessor Subodh Jaiswal (below), who was repeatedly left red-faced after the ACB trapped his cops for corruption. File Pics

His four horsemen
Soon after taking charge as Commissioner of Police (CP), Barve took a high-level meeting with all senior officers of Mumbai Police and instructed his four joint commissioners of police to address corruption in the force, among other issues. After a brief discussion, he came up with the idea to have each of the joint CPs visit one police station a day over the next month.

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According to senior officials, this will not only help them keep tabs on the workings of the officers, but will also help lower-rank cops to connect with seniors directly. Till date, only additional and deputy commissioners have paid routine visits at police stations.

The four joint CPs will cover 94 police stations between them. The Joint CP for Crime has been asked to visit the West and North region, while Joint CP for Law and Order will visit the East region. Similarly, the Jt CP for the Economic Offences Wing has been given charge of the Central region, and Jt CP (Admin) is in charge of the South region. Barve has asked them to collect information on attendance, pending cases, problems faced by lower rank staff, as well as study the root cause of corruption.

Also Read: Police Commissioner Sanjay Barve: All measures will be taken to keep the city safe

Different approaches
The news that high-rank officials will visit local police stations has created quite a buzz among the lower-rung staff, especially those with tainted records. mid-day had earlier reported that at least 89 such cops might be shunted to the control room as per instructions issued by erstwhile CP Jaiswal, after he was repeatedly left red-faced by his men getting caught for graft.

There are whispers at the local police level that Barve has told senior officials there is no need for such transfers, and instead the focus should be on sensitising cops during the joint CPs' visits. However, Barve has denied giving any such instructions.

Joint CP Admin Santosh Rastogi said, "It was just a routine shift for the purpose of  training for the upcoming general and state elections. As far as corruption within the force is concerned, we have always been taking steps to sensitise them."

Meanwhile, mid-day reached out to several junior cops who had been shifted to the control room for almost 10 days, who said no election-related training was given to them. Instead, the cops were taught yoga, and attended lectures on depression. All of them have since been reinstated in their respective police stations in the wake of rumours that a female constable from Malwani had attempted suicide to protest her transfer to the control room. The police had denied any such incident.

Sources have also revealed to this paper that some seniors who were asked to list out tainted cops had only given details of police personnel who were not in their good books.

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