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UP steps up war against cop-criminal nexus

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

"It is time we wage a war against the nexus between criminals and the police," Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh stressed at the All-India Police Science Congress, while describing the state as a "haven for militants".

The chief minister expressed deep concern over the "unholy alliance between the mafia and certain senior police officers." And his call was backed by Governor Romesh Bhandari.

And their allegations were not based on hearsay, but on an earlier report in which former UP police chief Haridas Rao had drawn the government's attention to the "established links of some 1,350 policemen with professional and dreaded criminals."

Rao, who carried out the exercise, went a step further by dividing the list of such shady policemen into two categories -- "undesirables" and those with a "criminal nexus".

The list of "undesirables" included 751 constables, 91 head constables, 108 sub inspectors and seven inspectors, while that with "criminal nexus" names 303 constables, 30 head constables, 34 sub-inspectors and one inspector.

But what had everyone surprised was the alleged nexus between a notorious gangster and Rao's predecessor Girish Behari who retired as the state's top cop last year. An official report prepared by the then vigilance director and current UP police chief Sri Ram Arun describes Girish Behari as "closely linked to the 14-member Phool Chand gang".

The report indicted an IAS and IPS officer on similar charges, while it is still investigating allegations of "land grabbing" against another senior IPS officer. It also describes "several immoral activities" of a few others.

The report highlights how some top police officers have "supported" rival gangs to serve unlawful objectives. However, when these revelations were made by the Hindustan Times, its correspondent Sunita Aron was allegedly threatened by Behari.

Aron was forced to seek police protection after she received threats to her life and was told that her children would be kidnapped. Only after a criminal case was registered against the former police chief in this regard did he back off. He was compelled to surrender before the local judicial magistrate's court from where he eventually got out on bail. Aron continues to move around with police protection.

Thus it was no surprise that when while addressing the All-India Police Science Congress, a former Punjab police chief and current governor of Nagaland O P Sharma termed UP as the "biggest sanctuary for top militant groups in recent times". According to him, "the long stretch of the unguarded Indo-Nepal border in Uttar Pradesh had become the key transit route for mercenaries entering India".

He also asked "why the UP police had failed to apprehend close aides of gangster Dawood Ibrahim" who clearly received sufficient patronage in the state. He drew attention to the involvement of a Ghaziabad criminal-turned-businessman in a few sensational kidnappings, "who was allowed to go scot free even after sufficient evidence was provided to the UP police".

Sharma also called on police officers to "build a national will and determination to expose whitecollared criminals, who needed to be crushed more severely."

UP Director General of Police Arun told Rediff On The NeT that "information about the police-criminal nexus was being processed and action would soon follow against the guilty". Now that there is political will, he felt "this task would be accomplished soon."

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