leaders of several political parties accused the State Government of making political interference in the appointment of police officers and policemen, resulting in deteriorating law and order in the State capital and other districts, including Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar. Dehradun police failing to make headway in the murder-cum-armed burglary case reported from Nakraunda in Balawala till Friday despite around 15 days having passed since the incident. The BJP has decided to extend support to the stir which mahapanchayat would spearhead on Monday.
Balawala police post in-charge KC Bhatt said that the mahapanchayat was convened on Wednesday and around 80 people from neighbouring villages, including five gram pradhans, block Panchayat member and local public representatives, including BJP senior leaders Trivendra Singh Rawat, Ravindra Jugran and others had participated.
During the mahapanchayat, members had set three-day deadline for the police to solve the murder-cum-burglary case. The members had decided to review things on Sunday. If the situation remains unchanged they would gherao the Police Headquarter on Monday.
Meanwhile, dozens of Communist Party of India (Marxist) activists led by Shiv Prasad Devli protested outside the office of Dehradun SSP and shouted slogans against police administration for allegedly failing to check crimes in the State capital on Friday. City police are still clueless about the identity of the offenders in the armed burglary case that resulted in the murder of a 23-year-old person and injury of four persons from the same family in Balawala area, the CPI-M activists alleged. They demanded measures be taken to improve law and order situation in the State capital promptly.
Moreover, senior BJP leader and former Uttarakhand Cabinet Minister Prakash Pant accused the Congress-led State Government of interfering in the appointment of police officers and policemen making a mockery of the appointment norms. This augurs ill for the State. This is what is responsible for deteriorating law and order in the State capital and other districts as well in the State. The BJP will intensify its stir if the Government fails to opt for a course correction, reversing the dangerous trend of installing political appointees in police, the BJP leader said.
Meanwhile, State Director General of Police BS Sidhu said the district police are using all possible resources to crack the case at the earliest. Several teams have been formed and they have been deployed at various places in the State and districts of western Uttar Pradesh to solve the case. Moreover, the senior inspectors have been included in the teams and they are working round-the-clock on several angles to arrest the culprits.
“It is now too early to disclose anything about the case, but police received some clues that would help them a great deal to reach down to its bottom,” he added.
Moreover, on the condition of anonymity, a police officer said that political interference in the appointment of sub-inspectors, inspectors, and other policemen is so rampant that the district police head face difficulties to transfer the police from one police station to others or to suspend one even if he seriously bungles while on duty.