Lax policing in Bhojpur irks DGP, cops rebuked

PATNA: The state has a new ‘chowkidar’ on night patrolling these days and the man is none other than new DGP Gupteshwar Pandey.
As Pandey, a 1987-batch IPS officer, can be seen conducting surprise raids on police stations during night, the cops in the state are having sleepless nights these days, literally. Pandey (58) took over the reins of the state police on January 31 this year.
The DGP has been conducting surprise raids on the police stations almost on a regular basis to see whether his men were awake or sleeping during night duty.On Thursday night, he carried out surprise inspection of two police stations at Ara, 60km west of Patna.
The DGP caught the cops on night duty sleeping at their official residences. Only sentries on duty were found at the Town and the Nawada police stations at Ara, the district headquarters of Bhojpur. Pandey was more shocked to find the sadar sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) Pankaj Kumar taking a rest at his official residence when he entered the limits of Ara town around midnight.
Besides the cops on sentry duty, no police officer, including the station house officers (SHOs) of the two important police stations, was found either at the police station or carrying out night patrolling in sensitive localities of the town.
Infuriated over the slackness on the part of the cops, the DGP immediately called Bhojpur superintendent of police Aditya Kumar and rebuked him for not paying heed to repeated directives of the police headquarters. “I have never seen such a bad policing in any other district I have visited till date,” said the state police chief.
He has sought explanations from SDPO Pankaj and the SHOs of Town and Nawada police stations — Chandrasekhar Gupta and Subodh Kumar, respectively. “Those found to be lax on duty will not be spared. I will ensure that they get exemplary punishment,” the DGP told reporters before departing for Patna.
Recalling the ancient method of policing, Pandey said, “When the village chowkidar used to recite ‘jaagte raho’ during night patrolling, the residents used to be relaxed. But here the men in uniform are lax in their duty. As a result, citizens have to remain alert.”
Ever since he took over as the DGP, Pandey has asked the SPs to enhance visibility of the police on roads, especially during night. Earlier, he had conducted similar raids on the police stations in Vaishali and Muzaffarpur districts and ordered suspension of the SHOs concerned.
A senior police officer, who had earlier worked under Pandey, said, “He used to do the same thing when he was the SP of Begusarai and Nalanda. He was often seen travelling in trucks as driver to ensure that the cops were not engaged in extorting truck drivers passing though his jurisdiction.