To check aggressive crowds, Delhi Police to procure pump-action rifle like BSF uses

Special CP (Provisioning & Finance Division) Sanjay Beniwal sent a letter to all Special CPs (law and order) and JCPs on February 23: “In the CP’s law and order meeting, it was decided that we need to have non-lethal weapons and equipment which are less lethal for effective crowd control. Pepper spray gun, bolwrap and pump-action gun, etc, including the existing and upcoming products of Taken Pur, may kindly be considered and a list of proposed items with required number may be communicated for early procurement.”

The idea was discussed in a meeting called by Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana a few days ago to check the police’s preparedness, against the backdrop of protests held in some areas of the capital to protest the hijab curbs in Karnataka. Special CPs, JCPs, Additional CPs and DCPs rank officers were part of the meeting, which lasted around two hours and took place at the Delhi Police headquarters, it is learnt.

“During the discussion, Asthana was informed about strategies prepared by district police and also told that they currently do not have any non-lethal weapons. He responded that the BSF uses PAR to control agitated crowds, and they should look at procuring it too,” said a police officer who was part of the meeting.

In the meeting, Asthana was also informed that the Delhi Police armoury currently has pepper sprays, taser guns, shock batons, multi-gas launchers, multi shell guns, tear smoke shells, and dye marker grenades. “Asthana was informed that they are also in the process of procuring the advanced indigenous mob control vehicle (MCV) prototypes, which are already equipped with GPS and video transmission from the CSIR-CMERI. They are also planning to get armoured personnel carriers,” an officer said.

Sources said another meeting was held Friday at the PHQ, where Asthana told officers to procure only non-lethal weapons approved by the Bureau of Police Research and Development for the Delhi Police.

In 2015, the then police chief B S Bassi had decided to procure stun guns, but the idea was later dropped. In 2019, then police commissioner Amulya Patnaik had too decided to procure non-lethal weapons. The provisioning and logistics department of Delhi Police had then floated a tender to procure 1,000 stun guns with lights and electric batons. “We had decided to procure these devices to control the crowd,” former Delhi Police spokesperson Mandeep Singh Randhawa had said at the time.

After Asthana’s meeting, a DCP from the New Delhi Range called a meeting with his SHOs wherein he briefed them about getting PAR in the coming days. “He explained to them how the PAR is smoother and faster, and does not require the trigger hand to be removed from the trigger while reloading,” an officer said.

When contacted, Delhi Police Spokesperson Chinmoy Biswal said: “We always handled law and order situations professionally. We continue to explore non-lethal weapons for handling law and order, if required.”