Cops turn robbers and go scot-free!

Long back a legal luminary had described the cops as criminals in uniform. And this is exactly how they are behaving nowadays. From aiding and abetting gambling, getting smack and other intoxicants sold to committing loot, a section of SOG cops in the city are doing everything in plainclothes. And to boot, they are going scot-free even after committing the unpardonable crime.

Long back a legal luminary had described the cops as criminals in uniform. And this is exactly how they are behaving nowadays.

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From aiding and abetting gambling, getting smack and other intoxicants sold to committing loot, a section of SOG cops in the city are doing everything in plainclothes. And to boot, they are going scot-free even after committing the unpardonable crime.

Two months ago the DIG Allahabad Range had ordered an inquiry into allegations against two SOG cops for looting around Rs 55,000 from some gamblers. To top everything they were reportedly given a clean chit by the sub-inspector who commands them.

In a fresh case ( many even don't come to light) a widow Ishrat Jahan living in Sainik Colony, Rasoolabagh, is sweating it out in the lower courts these days to get a case lodged against several SOG cops who not only looted cash, gold jewellery and other costly items from her house but also severely beat her, her son Ali Ahmad, newly married daughter Tabassum and son-in-law Maqsood Khan.

On SSP's intervention a sum of Rs 10,200 was returned to the victim. But the remaining cash Rs 4,800, some jewellery, three mobile phones, an Esteem car and some other articles are yet to be returned, says Ishrat Jahan. Even if these things are returned which they will have to what about the loss of my reputation and the physical injuries they inflicted upon all of us for no fault of ours, she asks. My son Ali who lives and works in Mumbai was beaten so severely that he is still unable to walk.

It was on August 7 this year when there were several knocks at her door her son-in-law, who is a clerk in army posted in Pathankot and had come on leave with his wife, opened the door without realising what was in store for the family.

No sooner had he opened the door when several persons in plainclothes barged inside and started beating all of us including the two ladies.

Next, they demanded the keys to the boxes and almirah. In 15 minutes they ransacked the house and went away with Ishrat's son and the Esteem car. A few neighbours who tried to intervene were sternly told to keep away because it involved the theft of a car, said the SOG men.

Meanwhile, Ishrat's son-in-law managed to wriggle himself out from the clutches of one of the cops and ran to the Shivkuti police station. There he realised that the plain clothes men were SOG cops behaving and acting like dacoits. Next morning the armyman met the SSP but no action reportedly came against the perpetrators of the crime except for the return of some cash, said Ishrat while talking to HT Allahabad Live. Her son was freed after four days but the car is still with the cops even after they have accepted that it was not a stolen vehicle, said Ishrat.

While innocent and law abiding persons are being meted out criminal-like treatment by a section of cops who are proven marauders, law breakers like smack sellers who don't even get easy bail were being let off under political pressure from the police station. As many as eight persons, one of them brother of a Samajwadi Party leader, were let off from Kydganj and Muthiganj police stations on Tuesday following heavy political pressure. The drama of beleaguering the two police stations by supporters of this leader lasted nearly ten hours. Ultimately cops gave in and the smack sellers walked out without blemish. Kudos ! This is Allahabad police.