Police action on anonymous letter ended tout-cop nexus

An anonymous letter triggered Delhi Police’s offensive against its own corrupt officers. Anti-Tout team had been formed to protect arriving passengers from touts at the airport.Karan Choudhury reports.

An anonymous letter triggered Delhi Police’s offensive against its own corrupt officers. The offensive was against the Anti-Tout team of Delhi Police, which is supposed to eradicate the menace of touts at the airport.

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Formed primarily after the murder of KT Shameer, a 39-year-old cloth merchant from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the Delhi Police had formed the team to tackle touts at Indira Gandhi International Airport.

But according to police, reports of the team conniving with touts had started pouring in. “We received an anonymous letter, which mentioned the tout menace at the airport,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (Operations) Satyendra Garg.

To see if the claims in the letter were true, a ‘discreet enquiry’ was done. Senior police officers said that police observers in plainclothes were sent to the airport. “They kept a check on the activities of the police officers in the team and those posted at the Palam Police Station,” said a senior police officer on the condition of anonymity, as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

The police said that the whole Anti-Tout team was kept under close and discreet surveillance. The police observers collected information as well as evidence against the accused officers. “Finally, after verifying all the facts and after preliminary enquiry, we took action against all the accused police personnel,” added the officer.

The accused police personnel, including the station house officer, Palam, Raj Kumar and other team members who were allegedly hand-in-glove with the touts were suspended.

“Yes, after enquiry, the accusations were found to be true. The police will do their departmental enquiry in due course of time,” said Garg.