With the UP government suddenly becoming serious on improving law and order, as is evident by the removal of AC Sharma as the DGP, the cops of Rae Bareli have adopted a novel way of controlling crime-- soliciting divine intervention!
The cops are of the firm belief that what they cannot do, the Almighty can. With this in mind, the men in khaki have taken to appeasing God by organising yajnas and prayers, fully convinced that 'He' will 'listen' to their pleas and rescue them in crisis.
The desperation of the cops surfaced in Khiron area of Rae Bareli, where a yagna was organised at the police station premises by SO GD Shukla to seek divine help to ward off 'evil spirits' and arrest the crime graph. The SO has been grappling with the spiralling crime graph.
Not only all cops of the Khiron police station but also prominent persons of the area participated in the yagna concerned by the growing criminal activities and praying to 'Him' to bring down the crime rate.
As per official figures, one murder takes place in Khiron police area every third day besides other heinous crimes like loot and dacoity.
Surprisingly, the district police chief of Rae Bareli, Rajesh Pandey, was unaware of the noval method adopted by his juniors to maintain law and order.
Rae Bareli is represented in the lok Sabha by Congress chief and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. When contacted, an amused Rajesh Pandey said: "Even if any such havan or puja has taken place, it must be due to the auspicious occasion of Navratri and has nothing to do with the crime rate."
The Superintendent of Police claimed that even the British rulers used to construct a temple on the police station campus to facilitate cops to pray and celebrate religious functions. "Such prayers are organised on almost all festive occasion and it is wrong to link it with spiralling crime rate," the SP said.