Four policemen of Khar police have been suspended for implicating a stable caretaker in a false drug case. Mumbai police took action after the CCTV video of this case went viral. The stable owner said that he had a dispute with a builder regarding the location of his stable and the police wanted to implicate him for that. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone-9) Raj Tilak Roshan said that suspension action has been taken against those policemen and further investigation has been proposed.
On August 30, a group of five to six individuals in plain clothes entered a stable in Kalina, Santacruz East, and took the caretaker, Daniel, into custody. One of them identified himself as a police officer, while another was caught on camera placing a packet of drugs into Daniel's pocket. Subsequently, they pretended to search Daniel and “discovered” the drugs, threatening to arrest him on charges of drug trafficking. However, this entire act was recorded by the CCTV cameras installed in the stable, a fact unknown to the police team.
After the CCTV footage went viral on social media, the detained Daniel was released. The viral video has exposed the misconduct of the Khar Police to the public, severely damaging the reputation of Mumbai Police. Upon investigation by higher authorities, it was confirmed that the police officers seen in the video were indeed from Khar Police Station, leading to their suspension.
When contacted, the stable owner, Shahbaz Khan, explained that there was an ongoing dispute with a local builder over the property where the incident occurred, and it was due to this dispute that the Anti-Terrorist Cell (ATC) team from Khar Police Station visited the stable. They inquired about Shahbaz Khan, but he did not meet them. According to Khan, the police attempted to frame him through Daniel. The Khar Police team took Daniel to the station under the pretense of the drug possession planted in his pocket.
Shahbaz Khan further revealed that upon reviewing the CCTV footage, it became clear that the police had planted the drugs in Daniel’s pocket to falsely implicate him. When this footage was shown to the concerned authorities, Daniel was immediately released, and an attempt was made to bribe them to prevent the video from being shared further.