Mumbai's Assistant Commissioner of Police Vasant Dhoble found himself in a tough spot after the death of a 40-year-old vendor during the anti-hawking drive in Santacruz on Friday.
The vendor, Madan Jaiswal, allegedly died of a heart attack during the raid against hawkers. Following his death Maharashtra Government has ordered a CID enquiry and transferred ACP Dhoble.
"He has been transferred out and has been asked to report to the main control room of Mumbai Police", Joint Commissioner of Police, Law and order, Sadanand Date told NDTV.
"Prima facie, it looks like he died of a heart attack, but we are waiting for the post-mortem report. The report will ascertain the exact cause of death," Date added.
The incident happened when civic authorities carried out the drive in the Vile Parle and Santa Cruz suburbs that night. According to reports, Dhoble was not present at the site during the raid.
When the authorities began patrolling hawkers immediately began fleeing and clearing the stalls from the streets. But once the authorities left the area the vendors re-arranged their stalls.
Few minutes later they returned to check the streets and the panicked hawkers took off. It was during then when Jaiswal collapsed.
Jaiswal was immediately taken to VN Desai Hospital where he was declared dead on arrival.
After his death, several enraged vendors gathered outside Vakola Police Station demanding action against Dhoble. Some hawkers and Jaiswal's family alleged that he was beaten up.
Following the protests from hawkers a CID probe was initiated. Jaiswal's body was taken for postmortem as per procedure. Doctors at the VN Desai hospital said that the body bore no marks of external injuries when brought to the hospital.
"We have not found injuries on his body, nor was he bleeding," Dr Vinay Sabhahit told Mumbai Mirror. "As it is a medico-legal case, we have sent the body to Cooper hospital for a post-mortem."
