Gautam budh nagar: Police team dissolved after ‘bribe rate list’ goes viral

By Friday afternoon, the matter had reached the state police headquarters in Lucknow when a tweet with the screenshots was marked to the UP Director General of Police.

“All 16 members of the team have been sent to police lines. An inquiry will be conducted by SP City. Following the inquiry, they might be suspended and further action will be taken against them if they are found guilty. The account from which the list had been tweeted has deleted the post. The account will also be verified,” said SSP Ajaypal Sharma.

Police sources said a tiff between two factions in the SOG team brought the issue to the fore. “We don’t know the authenticity of the allegations and an inquiry is going to be conducted. There was a scuffle between members of the team yesterday and hours later, this rate card became viral. It could just be an attempt to malign police,” a senior police officer said. Police sources said an SP-rank officer mentioned in the list has written to the SSP stressing on the need for a free and fair investigation.

The Indian Express tried to contact the businessmen on the list — while three phone numbers were switched off, three did not answer. One person claimed to be a security guard, one a salaried employee, and one said it was a wrong number.

Constituted by the SSP in each district, an SOG is supposed to formed to look into major murders and dacoity cases.