City residents, shopkeepers want their ‘favourite’ cop back

Ranchi: In a rare display of mass support for a cop amid apprehensions of a deteriorating law and order situation, residents and shopkeepers under the city’s daily market police station urged the district administration to restore the earlier posting of officer-in-charge (OC) of the station, Rajesh Kumar Sinha, at least till the end of the festive season.
On Thursday night, the Ranchi Police transferred about half-a-dozen police officers, including Sinha who is now posted as the court officer at the Ranchi civil court. It was learnt that Sinha had relinquished the post on Friday. Lalpur police station OC Arvind Kumar Sinha will now look after the daily market station.
In his past two years as the OC of the daily market station, Sinha had won the hearts of the residents and shopkeepers, who on Saturday wrote to SSP S K Jha to bring him back to his earlier post till the end of the major festivities.
Md Faiyaz, secretary of the Footpath Dukandar Sangh of the daily market cum member of the local peace committee, said, “In the past two years, Sinha ji changed the area. Earlier, daily market used to be a hub of criminals and drug peddlers, but that has been long gone and there is a dip in crimes in the area.”
Rajendra Singh, a resident of the OCC compound, agreed with Faiyaz and said clashes were routine in the daily market area before, mainly during the festival times. “However, in last two years, not a single instance of such clash were reported. Mostly importantly, the general feeling among both residents and shopkeepers is that proper law and order has been maintained. This was one of the biggest visible change we experienced in the last many years. Hence, we decided to jointly send a letter to the SSP requesting for his service extension,” he said.
The daily market in the heart of the city is a mix of residential and commercial areas. It has a population of at least 20,000 people comprising Hindus and different minority communities. It also hosts one of the wholesale markets of fruits and electronic items, making it one of the preferred shopping places for the city residents.
“Instances of theft, mainly in market areas, had come down,” said Md Rashid, a mobile shop owner, adding that he (OC) was always well mannered and approachable in case of any need. “During the Covid-19 restrictions, more than penalizing people, he and his team focused on feeding people and motivating others to adopt Covid appropriate behaviour through awareness drives,” he added.