Mumbai, Jul 7 (IBNS): In a Friday night raid, Mumbai's famous "moral" cop Vasant Dhoble
arrested several people, including 14 girls, slapping Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Act cases on them, media reports said.

Among the arrested are 28 visitors to Sangam Bar in Mumbai suburbs where there was a raid earlier too in recent months.

Dhoble is the Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) in Mumbai whose crackdown on bars, nightlife and arrests were highly controversial and earned him the dubious distinction of being a moral police.

Earlier,  Pune-based industrialist  Tehseen Poonawala produced a video that shows  Vasant Dhoble, accused of launching a concerted crackdown on partying and drinking in the city, apparently harassing four foreign tourists.

The police officer, who has become notorious for his raids on Mumbai nightlife often swinging hockey sticks and video cameras, is purportedly seen in the video herding four women into a police van, aided by constables.

The women, said to be German, refuse to get in, demanding an explanation as to why they were being detained, but are eventually led into a police van even as one of them cries while others repeatedly ask, "But what have we done?"

Dhoble and his constables then purportedly took them to a police station for "verification" and to “record their statements” for which the women were detained for an hour. The foreigners were picked up from a pub in Colaba in March, reports said.

Tehseen Poonawala,  who produced the video, said it was evidence against Dhoble who has faced sharp criticism for imposing archaic laws and tearing into the cosmopolitan nightlife that Mumbai is known for.

Two women arrested from a restaurant recently by Dhoble, who has also been accused of calling partying women “prostitutes”, have already sued him for defamation.