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BEFORE THE year-end, Mumbaiites will be able to view the history of the Mumbai Police right from the British era to the present times, at a police museum set to come up inside the Mumbai Police headquarters in south Mumbai. The museum, on the lines of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) museum in the US, will display, among other things, the uniforms used by the Mumbai Police since the turn of the century, and photographs and documents of a bygone era.
Joint Commissioner of Police (administration) Anup Kumar Singh confirmed: “The tenders for the renovation of the old commissioner office will open on May 2 or 3. As part of the
renovation, a police museum will be constructed in the building.”
A senior IPS officer said that the three offices currently located on the ground floor of the old commissioner’s office building is where the museum will be located.
Ever since the first Mumbai police commissioner of Bombay, Sir Frank Souter was appointed on December 14, 1864, there is a rich history of the Mumbai police. Glimpses of this history is captured in photographs of that era, letters written by prominent personalities, like the one Mahatma Gandhi wrote to the Mumbai police and the various uniforms that the Mumbai police has used, the officer said. “Several of these items are currently been stored at a room in Kalina. Once the museum is established all those things would be displayed at the museum,” the officer said.
The officer said that the FBI building has a similar museum on its ground floor which displays the history of the organisation.
“The museum we are planning will be on similar lines. We will also be consulting several architects and professionals like those from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS). The final designs to be used are almost ready. Once the tenders are awarded, it should take three to four months before the project is complete,” the senior IPS officer said. Police historian Deepak Rao said that the police should not locate the museum inside the police complex as it may not work well.
“The more open it is, the more people it will attract,” Rao said. He added that even prior to this, in 1989 when Vasant Saraf was Mumbai police commissioner, a museum had been inaugurated just behind the current police commissioner office by the then Maharashtra chief minister Sharad Pawar. “That museum however did not work out that well since it did not attract many visitors. Eventually it was demolished. The new museum should be planned in such a way by the police that it invites more footfalls,” Rao told The Indian Express.
mohamed.thaver@expressindia.com
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