UP Government removes Bulandshahr SSP, no reasons given

By Saurabh Sharma

Uttar Pradesh police, on Saturday morning removed Bulandshahr Senior Superintendent of Police Krishna Bahadur Singh. Bulandshahr has been in news for cow related violence that took life of a police inspector and a civilian on December 3.

He has been replaced by Prabhakhar Chaudhary who was Sitapur district's Superintending of police. Krishna Bahadur Singh has now been sent to the Director General of Police (DGP) headquarters.

Chaudhary is a 2010 batch IPS officer. He was came into limelight in 2016 after travelling in a bus to Kanpur Dehat, with just a backpack, to take charge as SP and was not recognized by police officers at the station. He is known for his clean image and ability to take prompt action.

Late Friday, the government transferred Syana circle officer (CO) Satya Prakash Sharma and Chingravati police outpost in-charge Suresh Kumar, for their failure in handling violence that broke out in Bulandshahr on Monday, December 3.

According to highly-placed sources in the police headquarters, this action was taken after Additional Director General (ADG) of intelligence, S B Shiradkar, submitted a confidential investigation report to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

If sources are to be believed, the intelligence report submitted by Shiradkar has questioned UP police’s role in the incident where inspector Subodh Singh and civilian Sumit Kumar were killed. Sources further claimed that the report also mentions that police did not take any cognizance of complaints on cow slaughter carried out in the area.

Though the UP Police has termed this incident as a big conspiracy, however, the CM Yogi Adityanath in Delhi has called it an accident.

Former UP DGP Vikram Singh, says that transferring the police officers is right, because the district police in-charge failed to send police reinforcement on time and that the mob should have been dealt with in a more strict manner.

“The SSP did not reach the spot on time and his action in this case is really questionable. I also fail to understand why the police has not yet announced any rewards for arresting Yogesh and Shikhar, who are accused of rioting, and are releasing their videos. These people are still on the run and they should have been nabbed within 12 hours,” the former DGP said.

Former UP IPS officer S R Darapuri, says that the actions taken by the government will demoralize police in the future. “All the outfits who are being blamed for this incident are linked with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the government is giving them an opportunity to prove their innocence,” he says, adding that while the accused named in the FIR, are on the run, the police officers who prevented the situation from worsening are currently facing the department’s wrath after accused Yogesh Raj And Shikhar Agarwal’s videos were leaked.

Darapuri claimed that only one-sided action is being taken in this case, and that it shows that the government is trying to protect individuals who are from outfits like Bajrang Dal.

The former IPS officer also said that police officers on the spot were successful in controlling the situation; however, Bajrang Dal workers brought the cow carcass in a tractor trolley across the highway in front of the police station, as they were aware that Muslims men returning from a religious congregation would travel along the same route, giving them the opportunity to create a ruckus.

Samajwadi Party’s spokesperson Abdul Hafiz Gandhi, reacting on this development said, “Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath is the most incompetent chief minister UP has ever seen. He only knows how to communalise and polarise. Development and ensuring rule of law is not his cup of tea.” He further says that the CM’s action after Bulandshahr incident is a grim reminder of the fact that the UP government is “more interested in creating communal polarisation for the forthcoming elections in 2019”.

Gandhi adds that the BJP-led UP government’s priorities are now clear, and that they are not interested in bringing Yogesh Raj, the primary accused for murder and rioting, to face the law, and that workers affiliated to the BJP and RSS would be safe if and when they take law and order into their own hands.