Kiran Tare/DNA

Mumbai, Sep 3: Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray on Tuesday criticised director general of police AN Roy for dismissing encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma.

Thackeray has said in an editorial in Saamna that outsider IPS officers (those not from the state) used dashing Marathi police officers for their purpose and dumped them once their job was over.

For Thackeray, Sharma is a Marathi because he was born and brought up in Maharashtra. Sharma from Dhule in north Maharashtra came to the city after joining the police force. And Thackeray has not stopped at Sharma. For him, encounter specialist Daya Nayak too is a Marathi. Though Nayak is from Dharwad in Karnataka, Thackeray  said that the area was dominated by Maharashtrians. Shiv Sena wants Belgaum, Dharwad, and Nipani to be merged with Maharashtra.  

“I wonder if anybody has taken a contract to replace the dashing officers of Mumbai police with wax statues. It was AN Roy who had congratulated Sharma for catching a consignment of weapons at JNPT. He is the same Roy who has said that Sharma’s dismissal is in public interest,” Thackeray said.

The Sena chief has backed suspended police officers Daya Nayak, Sachin Vaze, Praful Bhosale, Aslam Momin, Ravindra Angre, Arun Borude, and Ambadas Pote. “These officers may have committed some mistakes but that is not a licence to hang them.”

Thackeray has accused IPS officers of trying to clip the wings of Marathi officers. “The outsider IPS officers use courageous Marathi officers for their purpose and later dump them. Daya Nayak was dragged into a disproportionate property case. Pradeep Sawant cracked the Ghatkopar blast case successfully but he too was dragged into the Telgi case by IPS officers — Roy, Purie and Jaiswal. The court has termed their action illegal.”