© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Journalists remember former IPS officer Arup Patnaik’s tenure as the Mumbai Police commissioner as a “newsy” time, given the number of unusual changes brought about by him after being appointed the city top cop. The 1979 batch IPS officer from Odisha, who retired in 2015, has again hit the headlines now.
The ruling Naveen Patnaik-led BJD has fielded Arup from the party’s bastion Puri for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, where he will take on BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra.
Arup, who joined the BJD in April 2018, currently heads the party’s social welfare wing, Odisha-Mo Parivar (Odisha my family).
The BJD dropped four-time Puri MP and its face in Delhi, Pinaki Misra, to give ticket to Arup from the high-profile constituency.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Arup, who hails from Puri district, had lost on the BJD’s ticket to the BJP’s Aparajita Sarangi from Bhubaneshwar by 23,839 votes.
Patra was fielded by the BJP against Pinaki in the Puri seat in 2019, but he was beaten by the latter in a tough fight by 11,714 votes.
During his stint as the Mumbai top cop from February 2011 to August 2012, Arup always remained in the news – from reeling off catchphrases like “pehle action baadme section” and “pehle joota baadme Gita” (asking cops to act first and apply the law later) to having two over six-foot tall bodyguards near him all the time, to issuing circulars asking cops not to have “vulgar” ringtones on their mobile phones.
He would also conduct “surprise visits” to police stations at night and check cupboards of police officers to ensure they were not up to anything illegal. He was also credited with improving the state of the police canteens across Mumbai.
Considered as a tough taskmaster and straightforward officer, Arup’s strict demeanour had led to five junior IPS officers complaining to the state government about their unwillingness to work under him. The then home minister R R Patil had to convene a meeting to resolve the row.
Many believe that the biggest impact Arup had on Mumbai was by giving ACP Vasant Dhoble a free run for raiding bars in the city. Despite drawing flak from various quarters over the controversial move, Arup stood by Dhoble. even as he was dubbed the “bar busting top cop”.
He was, however, done in by his habit to shoot off his mouth. It was during his tenure as the city police chief that the riots broke out at Azad Maidan and led to the death of two people.
Already in the dock for not being able to prevent it, he was seen in a video purportedly telling a young Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), on whose watch the incident took place, that he was no longer the Sangli SP but with Mumbai Police. Many believed that it was the last straw since the DCP had been handpicked as the SP of Sangli, his home town, by R R Patil himself.
After Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray subsequently, while addressing a rally, sought his resignation for failing to handle the riots, Arup was shunted out and replaced by Satyapal Singh, who too went on to join politics, winning from UP’s Baghpat as the BJP candidate in the Lok Sabha polls in 2014 and 2019.
As an IPS officer in Maharashtra, Arup worked as the SP of Latur and Jalgaon before being transferred to Mumbai as a DCP.
He played a crucial role in curbing the 1992-1993 communal riots and in the investigation of the serial bomb blasts in Mumbai. He was also part of the CBI team that investigated multi-crore Harshad Mehta securities scam.
During his stint as the Mumbai Police chief, in July 2011, a serial bomb blast ripped through three locations in the metropolis that killed 26 people.
Arup was lauded by his colleagues for his “fast-decision making ability on police reforms”. The move to have a new administrative building inside the police commissioner office was also taken during his tenure, an officer said, adding that “he (Arup) had also started a new canteen for the lower rank officials and ensured it was clean and tidy”.
He also started a non-profit organisation, Konark Cancer Foundation, to help cancer patients at various levels of treatment in Mumbai’s Tata Memorial Centre.
While Arup was also known for never shying away from acting against his own men if they were in the wrong, what irked some juniors in the force was his “acerbic tongue” and “unpredictable behaviour”. A retired officer said, “He had no qualms blaming some cops even while giving media interviews when usually one would expect the commissioner to answer diplomatically.”
