Dhoble video: Is this policing or harassment?

Mumbai: It is the stuff of films, an angry cop, ever controversial, hated and loved in equal measure. ACP Vasant Dhoble is back in the headlines with a controversial crackdown on a Mumbai pub, trying to detain German girls without allegedly giving them an explanation. Is this policing or harassment?

A video from March 2012 shows Dhoble and his men raiding the Voodoo Pub in Colaba, and herding girls into a van under the Immoral Trafficking Act. Among them are four German girls, who are seen crying and refusing to get in, repeatedly asking why they are being taken in. They say they came to the popular watering hole after reading about it in a travel guidebook.

"We just came here because it was written in our travel guidebook. We have nothing to do with this, we just want to go home," said one of the German girls in the video.

However, in the video, the girls do not get an answer and Dhoble is seen cautioning a constable not to touch the women. There is only one lady constable present. The video ends after a point, and CNN-IBN cannot verify whether the girls were actually taken away or not. The pub has shut down since the raid.

The incident has raised several questions. Dhoble and the police administration has gotten used to raising a storm amidst civil society, which does appear to be split right down the middle on his crackdown of city nightlife.

However, even his supporters have criticised the manner in which the raids are being carried out, and the new video puts ACP Vasant Dhoble on the backfoot.

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