Lucknow:
The Congress has suggested that cops in Samajwadi-Party-ruled Uttar Pradesh be re-trained. That would seem like good advice after two senior cops in the past two days allegedly made extremely callous remarks about missing girls in separate incidents. West and east
First up was a video clip from Prabudha Nagar in Western UP, that purportedly showed Deputy Inspector General of Police, Saharanpur, Satish Kumar Mathur, telling the father of a missing girl that had she been his daughter, he "would have killed her and committed suicide."
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. The policeman is seen on camera saying, "This is a matter of great shame, if anybody's sister or daughter flees then he should, drown himself and commit suicide." The father had reportedly told the police that he believed his daughter had eloped.
Mr Mathur's red-faced bosses admitted that his alleged callous comments were not just unacceptable, they were illegal. And UP Additional Director General of Police, Jagmohan Yadav said the senior cop would face an inquiry.
It was soon clear, however, that Mr Mathur's was not an isolated case of a callous cop. In Eastern UP, The Superintendent of Police 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.
Livid at Mr Mathur's alleged comments, the National Commission for Women has said it will petition UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, who won a huge electoral mandate in the state this year on the promise of good law and order. The commission's chairperson Mamta Sharma has said she will write to Mr Yadav and demand that he be suspended. "The way I see it the DIG has turned away from his responsibilities. It is his responsibility that if a person, be it a male or a female comes to him for help, he is entitled to help them. The response that he has given is very cowardly and this is not right. I demand the State Government suspend him and then investigate why he gave such a response."
The missing girl's parents say they met Mr Mathur to seek some reassurance from the top cop that the police would find their missing daughter; they had earlier registered a case at the women's police station in Prabudha Nagar, they said.
Mr Mathur then is also seen saying that he can find the girl in 24 hours, but if he had a sister like that he "would shoot her or kill himself."
The Congress' Manish Tiwari has suggested that officials such as Mr Mathur be retrained. "It seems that some people are still living in 19th century. They should be sent for retraining," the Congress spokesperson said.