Constables’ protest: Top brass caught on wrong foot
LUCKNOW: Senior officers in the state police were caught off guard as the protest of constables spread from one police station to another in the city as well as the adjoining districts on Friday.
On Thursday, DGP, OP Singh had ruled out resentment in the force and had warned of action against cops joining the protest. To send a message to the constables running a campaign on social media, Sarvesh Chaudhary, a constable posted in Etah, was suspended and FIR was registered against unidentified policemen at Naka police station.
The senior police officers were confident that fearing action, no constable would dare to join the protest or observe ‘Black Day’ on the call of some organisations run by terminated policemen.
But they were taken aback on Friday morning when pictures of constables flaunting black arm bands began to be circulated on social media.
Initially, some officers tried to dismiss the matter as ‘stray protests’. When information started pouring in at around 1 pm that constables posted in over half a dozen police stations in Lucknow as well as in the SSP office had joined the protest, panic gripped the top officers. A meeting of senior officers was held under the DGP and senior superintendent of police (SSP) Lucknow, Kalanidhi Naithani was told to direct all the station house officers (SHOs) to control the erring constables.
“We hoped that the SHOs would take necessary action to check the protest but they failed . The district intelligence unit too failed to give information that constables of the 2015-16 batch posted in Lucknow police had ganged up in support of Prashant Chaudhary, accused in the killing of Apple executive Vivek Tiwari,” said a police officer after the meeting.
Soon, a message was flashed to all the superintendents of police to increase vigil on the constables and to crackdown on protesting cops. SPs of Varanasi and Mirzapur were directed to nab terminated cops Brijendra Yadav and Avinash Pathak who were inciting the constables to join the protest. The top officers heaved a sigh of relief when the district police officers informed that some of the pictures viral on social media were morphed and majority of the constables had joined duty after protesting.
The chief minister’s office and home department directed the DGP to submit a report on the measures taken to check the protest and action taken against the undisciplined cops. The DGP office was also directed to issue a directive to the SPs to check indiscipline among constables.
DIG (law and order), Praveen Kumar said the protesting constables whose pictures had gone viral on social media were being identified and appropriate action would be taken against them. According to him, some constables were misguided by their colleagues. They were told that the protest was against anomalies in salary, he said.
In the evening, top state government officers, including chief secretary Anup Chandra Pandey, principal secretary, CM, SP Goel, principal secretary, home, Arvind Kumar and DGP OP Singh briefed chief minister Yogi Adityanth about the day’s developments. The officers said a special training programme was being organised for the constables of 2015-16 batch as their training was inadequate.