Lucknow:
Two senior UP cops in the past two days allegedly made extremely callous remarks about missing girls in separate incidents. And today, the Akhilesh Yadav government took action and both the policemen - Saharanpur's Deputy Inspector General of Police Satish Kumar Mathur and Superintendent of Police of Sant Nagar district - were transferred.
"If that is the statement and if it has been shown on television then it is a very wrong statement because you expect justice from the police. He is at such a high position and if he does not understand importance of his position then action will be taken against him," Mr Yadav had said this morning.
A video clip from Prabudha Nagar in Western UP, purportedly showed Mr Mathur, telling the father of a missing girl that had she been his daughter, he "would have killed her and committed suicide," suggesting that if she had eloped, the girl had brought immeasurable shame to her family.
The video was allegedly recorded by local journalists at the Prabudha Nagar police station; on it Mr Mathur is purportedly seen suggesting dishonour killing to the father, who was there to ask for help to track down his minor daughter, missing for a week.
It was soon clear, however, that Mr Mathur's was not an isolated case of a callous cop. In Eastern UP, the SP of Sant Nagar district reportedly said at a law and order review meeting on Tuesday that he was fed up of cases that involved missing girls. The cop reportedly said the district police was more caught up looking for missing girls who had eloped than with maintaining law and order. "Of all the cases that come to us, 70 per cent are those of girls who elope. Should we catch thieves or girls?" This was punctuated with much laughter from his fellow cops.
The policemen's remarks had spawned national outrage, and demands for the officer's dismissal by women's rights groups.