The Uttarakhand Government announced a reward of Rs one lakh on Amit Malik, alias Bhura, who escaped from the Dehradun police custody while being taken to court for a hearing in Baghpat on Monday. State Director General of Police BS Sidhu said that being the head of the State police department, he owns the responsibility for certain policemen’s lapses that resulted in the escape of the under-trial prisoner Bhura from police custody and police weapons being looted by some criminals in Baghpat. SSP Rautela also owed the same moral responsibility over the incident. The Government has transferred Dehradun SSP Rautela and replaced him with IPS Pushpak Jyoti.
Sidhu further said that Monday’s incident was preceded by two or three such cases in the State. Teams formed to conduct investigation into these incidents had revealed that a single policeman was being deputed several times for producing the criminals in the courts. “Taking note of this, we have decided not to assign the same policemen again and again for producing the criminals or prisoners in the courts. Now it is being implemented strictly and duties are rotating.” He further said that taking lessons from Monday’s incident, they have decided not to use public transport for producing the hard- core criminals in the courts. Notably, the prisoner escaped when he was being transported to the court on a private auto-rickshaw
The police officers have been directed to prepare the list of the hardened criminals and they will be transported through police vehicles while being produced in the courts, he added.