diff --git a/drivers/cpufreq/cpufreq.c b/drivers/cpufreq/cpufreq.c
index 549788a2a967..e727282f5696 100644
--- a/drivers/cpufreq/cpufreq.c
+++ b/drivers/cpufreq/cpufreq.c
@@ -1639,19 +1639,26 @@ static void cpufreq_remove_dev(struct device *dev, struct subsys_interface *sif)
 	if (!policy)
 		return;
 
+	down_write(&policy->rwsem);
+
 	if (cpu_online(cpu))
-		cpufreq_offline(cpu);
+		__cpufreq_offline(cpu, policy);
 
 	cpumask_clear_cpu(cpu, policy->real_cpus);
 	remove_cpu_dev_symlink(policy, dev);
 
-	if (cpumask_empty(policy->real_cpus)) {
-		/* We did light-weight exit earlier, do full tear down now */
-		if (cpufreq_driver->offline)
-			cpufreq_driver->exit(policy);
-
-		cpufreq_policy_free(policy);
+	if (!cpumask_empty(policy->real_cpus)) {
+		up_write(&policy->rwsem);
+		return;
 	}
+
+	/* We did light-weight exit earlier, do full tear down now */
+	if (cpufreq_driver->offline)
+		cpufreq_driver->exit(policy);
+
+	up_write(&policy->rwsem);
+
+	cpufreq_policy_free(policy);
 }
 
 /**