Two cops arrested in connection with the case of a person falling fatally to bullets during celebratory firing to mark a marriage at Suddhowala in Premnagar under Dehradun district have left police red-faced.
The State police have reasons to face flak as they have issued detailed guidelines to the common people, asking them strictly to refrain from celebratory firing or else face the music squarely.
The cops resorting to the same have left the brass of the State police shell-shocked.
“How can we stop the people from the act when the members of police are doing the same with impunityIJ We must go for more drastic ways to stop the practice once and for all. Besides, the cops responsible for the death of one in such a dastardly act must be given stringent punishment so as to ensure that it acts as an effective deterrent to stop its recurrence,” said a senior cop.
Notably, in view of increasing casualties in celebratory firing, Garhwal Range IG/DIG Sanjay Kumar Gunjyal had sounded concerned and had directed the police station officers to ensure that no such thing recurred. The police officers had been strictly directed to follow zero tolerance for such cases in their jurisdictional areas.
Moreover, recently with the start of marriage season, Dehradun SSP Sadanand Date held a meeting with owners of wedding points and hotels and directed them to ensure that they would not allow celebratory firing during marriage ceremony.
It is clear from what has happened on Friday that the SSP has forgotten to instruct his cops that this also applies to them.
Observers say that the lower rung of the force might be ignorant of the prohibitive guidelines against celebratory firing. “Besides, police desisting from taking adequate actions against the high profile and influential persons tagged with the charge of celebratory firing might have emboldened the cops to take recourse to it,” said an observer. In some cases, policemen were seen doing celebrating firing in a function arranged by influential persons.
On Friday, Amit who was deputed at SOG was issued pistol by the police department for apprehending some criminals. The irony is that the firearm given to him to protect the people was used to kill one of them for the fun of marking a wedding.
Questions are being raised over such incidents occurring at regular intervals.
”It is intriguing why the law-enforcers are not dealing such cases stringently enough to stop their recurrence. In previous occasions, FIRs are being lodged, but things are not taken to their logical conclusion,” an observer said.