According to the police, the latest victim, Sanjeet Yadav, a 28-year old lab technician from Kanpur, was kidnapped on June 22 by five of his friends who killed him five days later and threw his body in a river. A day later, on June 29, a call went to his family asking for a ransom.
Yadav’s family has claimed that on the insistence of the police, they had arranged for Rs 30 lakh ransom and paid it to the kidnappers by dropping the money from a flyover in the presence of police. But the police could neither prevent the kidnappers from running away with the money nor nab them. On late Thursday night when the five were arrested it came to light that Yadav had already been murdered.
A total of 11 police officers, including IPS officer Aparna Gupta, additional superintendent of police, Kanpur (south), have been suspended by the UP government for alleged laxity while additional director general, police headquarters, VP Jogdand was rushed to Kanpur to enquire whether the ransom money was paid or not.
The spate of crimes despite chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s “zero tolerance policy” for criminals, even as gangster Vikas Dubey was killed in an “encounter” for killing eight policemen, has evoked intense criticism.
ET spoke to some former directors general of police and political experts to find out where the fault lies.
Prakash Singh, former DG of UP as well as a key architect of police reforms in India, said while it is certain that Adityanath is a leader of “unimpeachable integrity”, the same cannot be said for his advisors, some of whom may not be loyal to him. He also said a lot of postings of police officials with questionable credentials have taken place due to various external reasons, as in the past, and it is possible that the CM may not have been a party to them, thus leading to cases such as that of Dubey or the killing of a journalist in Ghaziabad.
“Improving law and order requires sustained action over a period of time. Those painting a picture of ‘jungle raj’ should know that the seeds were planted over many years that are now growing to become a nuisance,” said Singh.
He said while the current DGP Hitesh Awasthy has a reputation for being honest and is a “gentleman”, he needs to be more “effective” with his subordinates and instil in them a “fear of God” so they are not led astray.
Sharat Pradhan, senior journalist and political analyst based in Lucknow, said the CM’s advisors often paint a distorted picture of the ground reality in front of him, telling him what he likes to hear – claims of an improved law and order situation when there is rampant corruption on the ground.
Vikram Singh, a former DGP of UP, pointed to a lack of inspection of stations and lack of monitoring of history-sheets by senior police officials.
He said senior police officials should stand up to local politicians and resist postings under their influence, and there should be dismissal and not just suspension of officers found to be hand in glove with criminals to put across a strong message.
UP, India’s most populous state which is home to 230 million people, accounted for 10.9% of all crimes committed in India in 2018, according to the National Crime Records Bureau data, marginally behind Maharashtra, which led the tally with 11.1%. It topped the list in crimes committed against women, with 59,445 reported cases, followed by Maharashtra.