Mumbai, March 9: The placard-waving outside the metropolitan court in eastern Mumbai today would have warmed the heart of any budding politician.

Only, the object of the slogans? support was not a politician but a police officer. ?Praful Bhosale aaage badho, hum tumhare saath hain?, ?Social security under fire?, read the amateurishly-made placards.

When Bhosale and his three subordinates ? police officials accused of killing Ghatkopar blast accused Khwaja Yunus in custody ? were brought to the court in Vikroli, they received a noisy welcome. Many among the crowd were ordinary policemen who had come to express solidarity.

The surging wave of support for the officers, also accused of destroying evidence, has created fissures in Mumbai police, leading to a stand-off between the crime branch and the State Crime Intelligence Department, which is probing the case.

Yunus, 26, had disappeared from the Ghatkopar crime intelligence unit?s custody on January 7, 2003, in the aftermath of police investigations. The police claimed that he escaped from custody when they were escorting him.

Yunus?s father, however, moved Bombay High Court, alleging that his son died during custody torture. Co-accused Abdul Mateen, a doctor from JJ Hospital, told the court that he had seen Yunus vomiting blood in the Ghatkopar police lock-up.

The court told the state intelligence department to reinvestigate the case using Mateen?s statement as an FIR. The new probe led to the four officers? arrest.

Amid slogan-shouting outside the courtroom, metropolitan magistrate S.V. Kulkarni today extended the police custody of Bhosale and his colleagues by three days to March 11. As many as 81 people were arrested for protesting outside the courtroom. Some of Bhosale?s batchmates have threatened to go on mass leave.