The quality of a city’s police force is primarily evaluated based on crime prevention, detection, and conviction of the accused. A police force is expected to take effective measures to prevent crimes from happening. If a crime happens, the cops are expected to detect the case and apprehend the culprits as swiftly as possible. But merely catching a suspect is not enough. The police must produce enough evidence before the court so that the suspect is convicted. Let us see in the context of the firing incident on actor Tiger Shroff, where the Mumbai Police stand in these three tests.
The Mumbai Police are being lauded for quickly identifying the shooters who fired upon Shroff in Juhu and getting them arrested within fifteen hours by their counterparts in Kota, Rajasthan. No doubt, it was due to quick and specific information passed on by the Mumbai Police that the cops in Kota were able to arrest the three suspects from a train. The interrogation of these accused led to more arrests. Within a week, the Mumbai Police were able to arrest twelve suspects who played different roles ranging from recruitment of shooters to weapons supply. The Mumbai Police clearly passed the test impressively on the detection front. It seems that the city’s police are reclaiming their lost glory of the time when they were compared with the famous London Metropolitan Police, aka Scotland Yard police, known for their speedy detection of crimes.
READ | 12th Suspect Arrested In Tiger Shroff Shooting, Sent To 8-Day Police Custody
Despite being praised for quickly catching the accused, questions are being raised about the Mumbai Police’s effectiveness in preventing the crime: the first test. The shooters landed in Mumbai almost twenty days before they executed the firing. They scouted for potential targets. A shot from their weapon reportedly misfired when they were staying in a hotel in Andheri. They also practised shooting on the outskirts of Mumbai. However, the cops in Mumbai failed to get a whiff of the conspiracy to kill Shroff. It is clear that there was a lag in preventive policing. The incident also raises questions about the intelligence agencies. Interestingly, the Mumbai Police established its Intelligence wing in May 2025, which is headed by a Joint Commissioner rank IPS officer.
Mumbai Police is yet to clear the third test, that is, the trial of the suspects. Although the accused have been charged under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), which gives the prosecution extra time for interrogation and filing of the chargesheet, it will take a couple of years for the trial to begin. Meanwhile, the challenge before the police is that Anmol Bishnoi, the prime suspect in the case, remains beyond their reach. Bishnoi is incarcerated in the Tihar Jail of Delhi, and as per the Union Home Ministry’s order, he couldn’t be transferred to any other state.
Although the Mumbai Police have successfully handled the agitations by Maratha activists and the Cockroach Janta Party recently, the shootouts by the Bishnoi gang in the last three years have emerged as a major challenge. Despite several arrests in the Salman Khan firing case and MLA Baba Siddique murder case, the cops are yet to deter the gang from executing further hits in Mumbai. The Mumbai Police have arrested the foot soldiers, but the masterminds remain out of their reach, and the fear proliferates.
