With its image taking a beating after recent rape cases involving policemen coming to light, Mumbai Police have decided to call off Diwali celebrations, including the high-profile Bollywood star night.

Police officials are disturbed and do not wish to draw the force into a fresh controversy by going ahead with the celebrations, Joint Commissioner of Police (Administration), Subhash Awate said on Thursday.

"Our deputy commissioner and other officers were strongly in favour of cancelling the celebrations in the backdrop of the (rape) case that has disturbed us all."

• The Sahara airport rape

For the work-stressed force, Diwali is the only festival that does not call for heavy duties and hence policemen can spend time in celebrations with their families.

Therefore, Mumbai Police had planned weeklong events that included orchestra by well-known music arranger, Anil Mohile, shows of popular Marathi play Gangubai non-matric and entertainment shows performed by the men in khaki and their family members.

• The Navi Mumbai rape

A Marathi film, TV and theatre stars night in which stars like Varsha Usgaonkar, Vaishali Samant, Anuradha Poudwal, Sadhana Sargam, Suresh Wadkar were slated to present the show was also planned in the last week of October.

Also in line was the annual Bollywood star night at Brabourne stadium that attracts the who's who of Bollywood, each year.

"None of these events will take place now. Nor do we have plans to hold them sometime ahead," Awate added.

• The Marine Drive rape

According to Awate, the Naigaum police headquarters was scheduled to host a funfair on its grounds for families of police personnel.

"We had also planned to hold a prize distribution event for various sports events held for policemen and their families, which the chief minister and the deputy chief minister had agreed to attend," he said.

The JCP said such events take a lot of planning and cannot be held again at a short notice. "Perhaps it will be the next Diwali when these programmes will be held again."

Replying to a question, Awate agreed that the policemen and their families should not be penalised for the wrong deeds of a handful among them.

But in the present scenario, no policeman would like to celebrate Diwali and draw more criticism, he said.

He said remedial steps are being taken to ensure that the black sheep in the force do not bring further disrepute to the Mumbai Police.