The Uttarakhand police which was facing embarrassment due to a bus being stolen from a police post, has managed to recover the stolen bus on Sunday. With this ‘achievement’ the police have saved the State Home Minister Preetam Singh from further embarrassment in the House during the ongoing budget session of State Assembly.
It will be recalled that a city bus involved in a mishap that cost a woman her life, was seized by the police with the bus owner later securing a release order from the court. When he went with the court order to the police post, the police stated that the bus which had been under its possession after the accident, had been stolen by unidentified persons on February 18. This resulted in the bus owner losing his cool with the police trying to pacify him by shifting the blame for the theft on to the bus owner.
Sahaspur MlA Sahadev Singh Pundir had strongly raised the issue in the House during zero hour and he was supported by the other members of BJP.
State home minister Preetam Singh said that he acknowledges serious negligence on the part of police and assured the house that police would solve this case. BJP MlA Madan Kaushik had categorically demanded the State Home Minister’s resignation if he fails to recover the stolen bus.
Then speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal had asked the treasury bench to intensify investigation and recover the bus within this ongoing session. The Opposition had raised the matter in debate on deteriorating law and order of the state during zero hour and the debate will conclude on Monday.
Since the matter was raised in the house, the police had come under pressure and finally managed to solve the case by recovering the bus, which had been sold by the thieves and was being run with fabricated registration of UP-14CT 4999.
Thereafter State Home Minister had asked police to solve the case immediately with Dehradun police finally managing to solve the case by recovering the bus from Bijnor in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh. The bus thief identified as Anil Verma, a resident of Bijnor, was arrested by the police along with three other stolen buses. The accused had sold the bus in Uttar Pradesh after changing its registration number i.e UP-14CT4999 from UP-07G3475.