MUMBAI, 7 April 2008 — Retired director general of Punjab police and former Indian Ambassador to Romania Julio Ribeiro, who was also the Mumbai police commissioner, has denounced the so-called encounter specialists in the police.

Speaking at a function in Mumbai recently where he was awarded this year’s Dadabhai Naoroji Memorial Award for building ethnic ties, Ribeiro said: “Providing justice and doing your duty as a police officer is not a favor you are doing to the people, but it is your responsibility and the people have a right to be treated in a sensitive and humane way. I feel that police officers deal with the common man in the same way as they would with a criminal.”

On controversies surrounding a few policemen who are referred to as “encounter specialists,” Ribeiro said: “There is no such honorific as encounter specialist in the force. If there are officers who claim to be one, they should be done away with because they are criminals in uniform.”

A recipient of the Padma Bhushan award in 1987, Ribeiro said that the national honor served as a motivation for him and provide him a platform to inspire others to take up similar work seriously and help address larger issues.

Thackeray Clarification

In a separate development, the Shiv Sena chief came in defense of Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan after a report in the Sena mouthpiece criticized him for doing nothing for the State.

In what is seen as a damage control exercise, Bal Thackeray blamed the media for the controversy. “Amitabh Bachchan is our family friend. I did not say or write anything about him in the editorial. Still, electronic media channels made a mountain of a molehill over a report in Saamna, which (the channels’ behavior) is condemnable,” he said in a statement.

Thackeray further said: “Our relations with Amitabh are not so weak that they can be broken easily by the electronic media. My relations with the Bachchan family will be unaffected because it is a bond of love.”

The Sena chief castigated the electronic media for its penchant to sensationalize news. People are beginning to lose faith in the electronic media due to the manner in which they make a mountain out of a molehill, Thackeray said.

The Saamna executive editor and Sena spokesman Sanjay Raut, held a press conference late on Saturday evening and said that the news report published about Amitabh Bachchan had been taken from wire services and said that Sena chief Bal Thackeray, his family and the Shiv Sena had the highest regard for Bachchan and that he was beyond any criticism. Raut said that only an editorial or a special message from Thackeray, and not news items published in Saamna, should be considered as indicative of the party’s stand. It was probably the first time since the launch of the newspaper 20 years ago that the party disowned a report published in it.