The Uttar Pradesh government has officially announced the creation of a “special force” that will have the “power to search without warrant”. Any member of the force will have the power to “arrest a person without any order of a magistrate and without any warrant (the manner of the powers exercised under this section shall be governed by the rules prescribed in this behalf.)”
Chief Minister Adityanath’s government announced this and issued a notification Sunday. This confirms the formation of the Uttar Pradesh Special Security Force (UPSSF), which as mentioned will not even need a legal warrant to arrest anyone or conduct searches on any premise or property, as long as it is “sure about the crime”. The announcement was made public on twitter and the state’s ACS, Home & Information, Awanish Awasthi was duly marked.
बल का कोई सदस्य किसी मजिस्ट्रेट के किसी आदेश के बिना तथा किसी वारण्ट के बिना किसी व्यक्ति को गिरफ्तार कर सकता है (इस धारा के अधीन प्रयोग की जाने वाली शक्तियों की रीति इस निमित्त विहित नियमावली द्वारा शासित होगी): ACS, गृह व सूचना, श्री @AwasthiAwanishK जी
— Government of UP (@UPGovt) September 13, 2020
The Force will cost around Rs 1,800 crore. According to Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi, “The headquarters of the UPSSF will be in Lucknow and an ADG-level officer will head the force. Initially, five battalions of UPSSF will be formed,” stated news portal The Print. It reported further details, stating that the special force will be responsible for security of important govt buildings, offices & industrial establishments in Uttar Pradesh. Private firms can also hire services of the force. The report added that CM Adityanath announced the formation of the force on June 26 which was then subsequently passed by state cabinet. “The UPSSF got the nod from the DGP of the state. This force will be deployed at places like metro rail, airports, industrial institutions, courts, religious places, banks and other financial institutions,” Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Avaneesh Awasthi was quoted in the news report. Around 9,919 personnel will be deployed with the force within three months in the first phase, and 1,913 posts will be created later.
According to a news report, the UP government, raising the five battalions will initially cost Rs 1747.06 crore. It is being reported that this force is being constituted on the lines of the “Central Industrial Security Force (CISF)” and that the proposal for the constitution of a special force came on the “directions of the Allahabad High Court after incidents of violence were reported on the premises of courts in December last year.” However it is not yet clear why the force will also have sweeping powers to search and arrest any citizen it wants. The existing security forces in the state already have multiple powers.
The Uttar Pradesh government has also continued to push its agenda against what it has termed as “love jihad’. According to a report in The Indian Express the Inspector General, Kanpur Range, Mohit Agarwal now said, “The inquiry would find out if is there any connection between Muslim youths involved in such cases. The probe team would also look into the conspiracy part and see if youths are being funded from abroad.”
The news report states that one such case is that of a 21-year-old who left home in July to marry her partner, a Muslim man. She had uploaded a video a few days after she left home and shared that she had married a Muslim man and converted. The woman sought protection and said that her parents had lodged a “false FIR of kidnapping” against her partner.
Now, stated IE, armed with a list of cases from Kanpur police stations involving Hindu-Muslim couples in the past two years, “a nine-member team headed by a Deputy Superintendent of Police-rank officer is looking into allegations of “love jihad”.” The probe follows claims about such cases in the area by right-wing Hindu organisations, including the VHP.
Even though such cases fall flat as both partners are of marriageable age and in consensual relationships. Recently, reported IE, a woman testified before a magistrate that she was a major and had married a Muslim youth of her own volition, and deflated all allegations of ‘love jihad’. The IE quotes, Inspector General, Kanpur Range, Mohit Agarwal, “The inquiry would find out if is there any connection between Muslim youths involved in such cases. The probe team would also look into the conspiracy part and see if youths are being funded from abroad.”
Now a police team, headed by DySP Vikas Kumar Pandey, is “looking at allegations regarding 11 such cases”, by “collecting information on the couples, recording statements of their family members, as well as checking call detail records of the Muslim youths, Pandey said”. Sources told IE that “their bank accounts will also be checked.” According to IG Agarwal “a group of people had met him recently” and sought such a probe. He refused to tell the media who they were, except that they were “locals”. However Assistant Superintendent of Police, Kanpur, Deepak Bhuker told IE that the team was only conducting an “inquiry” to see if there was any “planning” behind the incidents, and not an “investigation”.
The news report quotes Pandey, “We are finding out where and how they met. Has any person played the role of a middleman? The police team is also collecting details from their relatives and friends. We are also finding out if any of the Muslim youths had hidden their real identity. We are also studying call detail records of the youths found involved in such matters.”
In the the matter of the 21-year-old who left home in July, and put up a video a few days later saying she had married a Muslim man and converted, Suresh Singh, the Senior Sub-Inspector of Babupurwa Police Station, was quoted by IE, as saying that “the couple had approached the court and the woman had told a magistrate that she had married as per her choice”. He said that “since the woman is a major, there was nothing for the police to do and they would conclude the investigation”.
Another case is of a Muslim man named Fateh Khan, who is accused of passing himself off as Aryan Malhotra. He allegedly had two separate Aadhaar cards under the two names. The Hindu family in whose house he had rented a room for the past two years had later accused him of abusing their minor daughter, stated IE. Station House Officer, Naubasta Police Station, Kunj Bihari Mishra said the man had since been booked on rape charges and jailed.
It is reported that VHP’ leader Deen Dayal Gaur, had met the IG, Kanpur range, last month because they suspected “that Muslim youths were targeting Hindu girls who are from poor backgrounds”. “We requested the IG to look into such cases, and also check if these youths are being funded from anywhere,” said Gaur.
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