Mumbai Crime: Club manager accuses Khar Police of abuse of power

A screengrab of the video

A 50-year-old manager of a recreational club has filed a written petition in Bombay High Court accusing Khar police of misusing its power. In the petition, he alleged that Khar Police threatened him to shut down his club at Red Palm Residency in Khar West.

Red Palm Residency manager Satish Yadav last week had filed a petition alleging that assistant Police Inspector (API) Kishore Pawar, from Khar police station, demanded a sum of Rs. 5,000 every month for smooth functioning of his business. However, when Yadav declined to comply with his demands, the latter slapped him in front of everyone at the club and threatened him of dire consequences should he failed to oblige to his demands.

Yadav claims that the club has all necessary documents to run legally but Pawar is making fake documents to shut down the recreational club showing it as an illegal business. He also added that the club runs no illegal activity as it is totally covered under CCTV cameras. Pawar's high-handedness is captured in the CCTV footage as well.

Talking to mid-day, Yadav stated that on July 4, 2018, API Pawar came to the reception counter and started a verbal assault.

However, when API Pawar was questioned about the alleged assault on Yadav, he denied having committed such activity at the club and said, "There is nothing as such."

The recreational club is owned by Bollywood fitness trainer Sanjeev Chaddha alias Tikoo who has worked in the film 'Shootout at Wadala'.

"The club has a gymnasium, lodging/boarding, yoga centre, card room, table tennis, carom, chess, billiards, bridge etc for entertainment purposes of its members and social get-togethers," said Yadav.

"We had enrolled members with an annual membership, lifetime membership, patron membership and ordinary membership, and the Gymkhana offers various discounts on various facilities to their members. But the Khar police started to harass our customers too for no reason and hence our business has incurred a huge loss," he added.

While on the other hand, the divisional Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Dilip Kale said, "We have been taking preventive measures to extern him from the area as he (Yadav) is a history-sheeter. There are four cases including theft registered against Yadav, who promotes illegal games like Poker at his club. We do not have a personal rivalry with anyone. It is just a step to keep up law and order in the society."

"Every corner of the gymkhana building and in the card room area are being surveilled electronically. Also, no members are allowed to carry cash while entering the card room area except for their personal expenses. Lockers are provided at the reception of the gymkhana where all the members are requested to empty their pockets. We conducted various tournaments for card room players when we started to gain popularity," said Yadav.

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