THE TIMES OF INDIA (May 4, 2014)

Mumbai: The Mira Road police booked model Poonam Pandey for ‘indecently behaving in public’ under the controversial section 110 of the Bombay Police Act on Friday night. Pandey (23) claimed she was listening to music in her car with her brother when the police came. Neither her behaviour nor her knee-length dress could be called indecent, she added. She was taken to the police station, booked and let off. Cops said she was “skimpily dressed”.

 Legal experts cited several instances in the last two years where section 110 was slapped on youngsters on flimsy grounds. “It needs to be overhauled,” said advocate Pranav Badheka

‘Skimpy attire was drawing a crowd’
Mumbai: On the use of section 110 of the Bombay Police Act, IPS officer-turned-lawyer Y P Singh had said earlier that it was a magic mantra for many in the police.

 The section is often used to pull up patrons of nightclubs and also gives the police powers to book a person for questioning their action.

 About the Pandey case, the police said she was “skimpily dressed” and waiting alone near Shivar Garden around 10.30pm. When questioned, she gave vague replies, said assistant police inspector Praful Wagh. Though he did not elaborate on the nature of her offence, the police are believed to have taken objection to her plunging neckline.

 Pandey, a resident of Goregaon, told TOI she and her brother were on a long drive on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway (Wagh said Pandey was alone at a secluded spot and had no male company). She said that when the police arrived at the place she had stopped, they warned her against playing loud music; but before leaving, they asked her to tell them her name; upon realising that she was a model, they slapped her with indecent behaviour charges.

 “It is only after they heard my name that they thought of charging me for indecency,” said Pandey, who became famous after she promised to strip naked if the Indian cricket team won the 2011 World Cup.

 Wagh said Pandey was dressed skimpily and was standing outside her car. “Her attire was attracting a huge crowd and we had to intervene,” he said.  

 BOMBAY POLICE ACT Allows the police great autonomy to decide what behaviour is “offensive”, what conduct is “disorderly” and even what words are “abusive”  

 SECTION 110 | Permits any policeman, including a constable, to book and arrest a person for ‘indecent behaviour in public’ if it occurs in his sight

TIMES VIEW: Cops going around booking women for being “skimpily dressed” sounds so medieval. Police officers should maintain law and order; they should keep in mind they are not arbiters of morality and fashion. This attitude, just like the Bombay Police Act, is a relic from the past; both need to be binned immediately.
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Shirish Vaktania (MID-DAY; May 4, 2014)

Trust Mumbai cops to take ‘ moral policing’ to a new low. On Friday, officers from Mira Road police station cautioned model Poonam Pandey for allegedly kissing a man on the streets after a resident of the area contacted the police to complain.
Praful Wagh, API, Mira Road police station, said, “A resident told us that a woman was kissing a man at Mira Road. When we reached the spot, we found Pandey in her car, alone.” Wagh added that they asked Pandey to come with them because “her dress was too short”. “She was not safe on the road, so we decided to take her to the police station for her safety,” added Wagh.

The police registered a non-cognisable offence against Pandey. An irate Pandey’s tweet read, ‘Listening to songs in the car is not an ‘indecent behaviour’ pls stop spreading such kinda news about me.’ She said, “The cops found my dress too short? I was not wearing a bikini that they made an issue of it all.” Pandey added that the man in question was, in fact, her brother.