ATS overhaul in backburner

Alok Singh and Jyoti Narayan,Commandants of 35 and 32 Battalions of the PAC,were attached with the ATS to look after operations of the Lucknow and Kanpur zones. Jai Narayan Singh,SP with the State Crime Record Bureau at Lucknow,was given additional charge of Faizabad zone. SSP (ATS) Rajiv Sabharwal,who was posted as Lucknow SSP,was asked to take care of Allahabad zone as well.

In addition,S N Singh,IG of the Central Zone PAC at Lucknow,was given the charge of supervision of Kanpur ATS. Lucknow range IG A K Jain was asked to supervise the Lucknow zone. Rajiv Krishna,ATS DIG at headquarters,who also had additional charge of PAC,was replaced with DIG Ajay Anand who was asked to supervise ATS,Allahabad.

Since most of the officers had additional charge of the ATS,the arrangement did not look really convincing. Further,no additional staff was provided,nor any infrastructure created outside Lucknow. It was expected that the officers would use their existing staff for intelligence gathering and existing manpower for operations whenever required.

This arrangement,however,ceased to exist before long. First,DIG Ajay Anand was transferred to Meerut as district police chief. Jyoti Narayan was posted as Rampur SP in February. IG S N Singh,Alok Singh and Jai Narain Singh have stopped visiting the ATS for over four months now.

At present,A K Jain,Rajiv Krishna — who has since returned to ATS in place of Ajay Anand — and Rajiv Sabbarwal are the only ones serving with ATS. Among them,A K Jain has additional charge of the chief minister’s security,Lucknow Range and the PAC.

“Besides me,DIGs Rajiv Krishna and Rajiv Sabbarwal are heading ATS,” Jain said.

STF fate no different
Similar has been the fate of the reorganisation of the UP Police’s STF,which deals with organised crime. In November 2007,the government decided to create two wings of STF,East (Varanasi) and West (Meerut). While DIG Rajiv Ranjan Verma was posted at Meerut,the then Varanasi Range DIG was given charge of East zone. Verma set up a unit in the west. He got it shifted to Noida for operational reasons. In March 2008,he was transferred to Allahabad. In Varanasi also,there is no DIG now. Both Meerut and Varanasi now have only a deputy SP. IG of STF,K L Meena,said: “The East and West zones are still functional,but no DIGs are posted for supervision there.” Asked about the reason,Meena refused to comment.