DGP S R Mardi during a meeting with SHOs in Shimla Wednesday. (Express Photo by Pradeep Kumar)
Days after the Kasauli firing incident during a demolition drive left Assistant Town Planner (ATP) Shail Bala Sharma dead and a PWD labourer Gulab Singh (56) injured (now he is also dead), Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur has asked top police officers to get their act together. “You (police) have done a huge damage. All the goodwill we (BJP government) had earned in the past four months got washed out. Let me tell you, either you perform or just let me know you simply can’t do it,” Thakur reportedly told them at a meeting held on Tuesday.
Among those present in the meeting was Chief Secretary Vineet Chawdhry, additional Chief Secretary (Home and Vigilance) B K Aggarwal, who took the charge only on Tuesday, Director General of Police S R Mardi and Additional DGP (law and order) Anurag Garg, among others. “Kasauli incident was a real blot on functioning of the state police. It was a big failure of the law enforcement agency as accused fled the spot after killing the officer doing her duty to enforce the Supreme Court orders,” the CM told officers, according to sources.
Thakur gave 15 days to the DGP to come out with an action plan on how the police wanted to improve its functioning, check crime against women and launch a crackdown against mining mafia, which was a task given to the police on day one.
Sources said an angry CM told a top police officer not to give him explanations quoting data on reported cases and academic reasons as how the number of rape cases had increased. “I know the ground realities better than many of you. Please, only tell me how you are going to reverse it and show visible police action against the mafia. The law violators should have some sense of fear in their mind,” the CM reportedly said.
Hours after the CM’s meeting, Director General of Police on Wednesday held a meeting with police officers of South range.