Delhi Police launch special ‘check and detect’ drive

The intensified checking on the streets and increased barricading on city roads will continue till July 10, police said

One hundred and ninety-one bad characters (BCs) were held under preventive arrests in a special check and detect drive launched across seven police districts on Friday night till the early hours of Saturday, the Delhi Police said, adding that a large number of stolen or illegal items seized from them.

The intensified checking on the streets and increased barricading on city roads will continue till July 10, police said. (AFP/Archive)

Sagar Preet Hooda, special commissioner of police for law and order, said that the special drive in Zone 2 led to preventive arrests of 191 BCs under various laws.

“We also arrested five externees for being present in their area,” said Hooda. While BCs are people with several criminal cases against them, externees are those who are ordered to stay out of a particular area for a particular period of time as punishment.

From some of these arrested people, and during the other searches, police seized 28 grams of heroin, two snatched gold chains, 4,419 quarters of illicit liquor, 72 beer bottles, a stolen motorcycle, and six button-actuated knives, among other things.

The intensified checking on the streets and increased barricading on city roads will continue till July 10, police said. We will “take criminal elements by surprise” and have their on-field staffers accustomed to “a greater level of alertness”, said Dependra Pathak, the special commissioner of police for law and order of Zone 1, comprising eight districts.

The action comes in the wake of a series of crimes, including the recent robbery at the Pragati Maidan tunnel by four armed men last week. The special checking and patrolling exercise began on Monday when nearly 9,000 personnel deployed at 475 additional pickets, and nearly 800 people were under preventive arrest.