Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil was under fire from the Opposition for Mumbai riots as Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray te-rmed the Police Department ‘impotent’ for its inability to take stringent action against the rioters.
“The miscreants went on rampage under the very nose of the police. The police watched helplessly as they did not have specific orders to deal stringently with the rioters,” said Uddhav. Uddhav said that police had never exercised restraint while trying to quell the protests of other groups. “The unarmed farmers of Maval in Pune were hunted and shot like animals while they were protesting on the Mumbai-Pune highway. Whereas in Mumbai, the rioters were armed with sticks, rods and petrol and the police hesitated to open fire on them,” he said.