The Narcotics Control Bureau’s (NCB) decision to leave out Aryan Khan, son of actor Shah Rukh Khan, from the chargesheet last week in the so-called drugs-on-cruise ship case in Maharashtra has raised eyebrows in many circles. It is unfortunate that a fabled and civilised city like Mumbai has been the subject of contentious discussion so frequently in the past few years for the crimes reported from there and the inept handling by enforcement agencies. The war between the Centre and the Maharashtra government has only added fuel to fire, each trying to outwit the other through vicious propaganda.
There are again scores of controversies surrounding top appointments in the Maharashtra Police, an index of the malaise that afflicts the police force in the State, which, decades ago, was known for its clean administration. A former Commissioner of Police was recently on the run for several weeks to evade arrest on charges of extortion. The investigation is still going on against him and a former Home Minister of the State. Can anything be more shameful and demoralising to the entire bureaucracy, and not merely the Police?
