Mayawati to ‘remove’ all SHOs posted during Mulayam’s reign

“A circular has been issued to all the IGs and DIGs to prepare a list of SHOs posted during the Mulayam Singh Yadav government between September 2003 and May 2007,” a senior state official said on Monday.

Director General of Police (DGP) Vikram Singh has ordered the Inspector General (IG) of seven zones of the state to ensure that no SHO, who had served in their zones during the Mulayam government, was posted in the same region again.

The chief minister at a press conference on Saturday had described Hoshiyar Singh, SHO of Dibiyapur police station, as a “Samajwadi Party man” and accused him of being involved in Gupta’s murder.

“After the Auraiya incident, the BSP Government feels that these SHOs posted during the SP regime could do anything to malign the image of the government. Hence the circular was issued to remove them,” the official said.

Singh has already been suspended and an inquiry has been initiated against him.

“All the SHOs posted in the previous regime are on the target list of the government,” the official said.

In a related development, the DGP issued instructions to IGs regarding handling of cases involving leaders of the ruling party.

The DGP called a meeting of the IGs at the headquarters on Monday. The IG of Kanpur Zone was exempted from the meeting because he is supervising the investigations in Gupta’s murder.

An officer present in the meeting said the DGP asked them to ensure that officials of the rank of additional superintendent of police and below does not handle matters referred to by ministers, MPs, MLAs and workers of the ruling party.

According to the DGP, superintendents of police and officers with ranks above them would now be held responsible if any matter caused an adverse affect on the image of the police or the government.

Singh also directed that IGs, DIGs and SPs will not take any decision in sensitive matters related to the politicians without informing the Additional Director General (Law & Order), the Director General of Police or the Principal Secretary (Home).

Singh asked the IGs to keep an eye over the conduct of station officers (SOs) and evaluate their behaviour with Dalits. He instructed senior officers to carry out surprise inspections at the police stations and scrutinise the entries in the general diary.

ADG (Law & Order) Brij Lal, who was also present in the meeting, said the IGs were given instructions to ensure tight security during Moharram and arrest the rewarded criminals. They were also asked to check incidents of harassment of women and initiate action against alcoholics, who create trouble during New Year celebrations.

Asked if Gupta’s murder was discussed in the meeting, the ADG said: “We will ensure that no such incident occurs in the future.”
— With inputs from PTI