Mind it, Juhu police! This was not a scene from the Bollywood comedy Quick Gun Murugun but an exciting police story that went terribly wrong. A Juhu family is furious after the police searched their residence without a warrant on Wednesday, claiming they had information about arms and cash worth crores hidden there.
The police control room received a call about an AK-47 and Rs3.5 crore being hidden at advocate MA Wagh’s house. Five policemen searched Wagh’s residence at JVPD Scheme, but the tip-off turned out to be a prank as the cops did not find anything there.
Three months back, the police had carried out a similar search there, again after receiving a hoax call and without a warrant.
Wagh has written to city police commissioner D Sivanandan, who has initiated a probe.
“We cannot stop the police from carrying out their duty. But the method in which the search was carried out has upset us,” said Vaishali Wagh, a family member. Vaishali said her 65-year-old mother, along with two children and another family member, were at home during the search. “Won’t it be traumatising for an elderly woman and two children to see cops running around their house, searching for something?” Wagh asked.
The Waghs said they have been flooded with telephone calls after news spread through among society residents who saw the cops at their residence. Some people even asked if they really had an AK-47 and such a huge amount of cash, the Waghs said. “If the police wanted to carry out their duty, they should have verified their information and then searched the house. The least they could have done is come in plainclothes,” said another family member.
The Juhu police claim they carried out the search “very subtly”. “We finished our search within a few minutes as there was an elderly woman in the house. She told us that someone had played a similar prank some months back. Thus we did not bother them much,” a senior police officer from Juhu said.
Advocate Khan Abdul Wahab, who has defended several inmates alleging illegal detention, said, “In case police get information that some explosive article or weapons are stored, they can conduct a search anytime. It is crucial for the police to carry out a search, especially in times like these. However, after realising that there were two hoax calls, the police should probe who the caller was.”
