The Uttar Pradesh police nabbed 18 people, including two policemen, late on Wednesday night for their alleged involvement in facilitating smuggling of liquor and other items into the state through the Bihar border.
A team of Special Task Force, led by ADG Varanasi and DIG Azamgarh, conducted a raid at the Bharauli intersection located on the UP-Bihar border under the Narhi police station of the Ballia district and arrested the 18 accused on the spot, DIG Vaibhav Krishna said on Thursday.
The police team recovered Rs 37,500 in cash from the spot.
Nine policemen, including Narhi police station in-charge Pannelal, have been suspended following the raid while all policemen of the checkpost, including in-charge of Korantadih outpost, have been suspended and a case has been registered against them.
The DIG said a challan had been issued against the 18 arrested persons.
Soon after learning about this development, Director General of Police Prashant Kumar also took cognisance of the matter and instructed ADG Varanasi Piyush Moradia to take strict action against all the accused policemen and others involved in the crime.
Sources said that a report had been sought to forward it to the authorities concerned so that all the men in uniform, found to be involved in the extortion could be removed from the police force.
According to DIG Azamgarh Vaibhav Krishna, four days ago they received information that some policemen posted in Ballia were extorting money at Bharauli checkpost.
After this input, a joint team of ADG Varanasi and DIG Azamgarh was formed and late in the night on Wednesday, the Bharauli checkpost, Korantadih police outpost and Narhi police station were raided simultaneously.
Both the senior IPS officers were also present in this raid. Both the officers kept this raid so confidential that they did not even inform the superintendent of police of Ballia about it.
According to the information received from the ADG Varanasi office, inputs about extortion and collection of money at Bharouli checkpost were received several days ago. However, continuous recce was done for four days, and when the whole matter was confirmed, then finally the raid was conducted.
The action started after midnight at Bharauli picket across the Ganga river bridge on the UP-Bihar border of the Narhi police station area on a complaint of illegal recovery from trucks laden with sand as well as vehicles carrying liquor and cattle at the border. The team took into custody three policemen and 17 others from the picket.
A large number of motorcycles, registers and mobiles were also recovered from the spot. All the accused were kept at a nearby temple and interrogated throughout the night. On Thursday morning, the vehicle used for carrying prisoners was called from Ballia and the people caught were brought to Narhi police station. The team’s action continued at the Narhi police station. The room of the station in-charge was sealed. Police station in-charge Pannelal was missing from the spot. After this, searches of the policemen’s barracks were also started.
In the morning, DIG Vaibhav Krishna and SP Devranjan Verma, along with the additional superintendent of police and circle officer also reached the spot.
DIG Vaibhav Krishna, who came out of the police station after hours of investigation, told the media that Narhi police station in-charge Pannelal as well as in-charge of Korantadih police post of the police station, along with all the policemen posted there, had been suspended. He said police recovered Rs 37,500 in cash and 14 bikes.
He said that two policemen and 17 brokers had been arrested. They used to help the police in extortion.
Three policemen have absconded and a case is being registered against all of them.
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav reacted sharply to the incident on social media saying, “A new game is happening in Uttar Pradesh: Earlier it used to be ‘thief-police’ game and under BJP rule it is happening ‘police-police’!”
“This is the exposure of ‘zero tolerance’ against crime. #Don’t_want_BJP” he wrote.
