Journalism of Courage
IN an unprecedented move, two State Reserve Police Force jawans have been arrested for refusing to go on duty in Gadchiroli. This came after the State Reserve Police Force lodged a complaint with the local police against the jawans. According to a press note issued by Inspector General of Police, SRPF, Nagpur, the two policemen, MK Pande and OG Lanjewar were supposed to go to Gadchiroli on election duty for the forthcoming zilla parishad elections along with their companies, E and A respectively but they didn’t.
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“They had many such counts of previous dereliction of duty. So, as an extraordinary step, we registered an offence against them at the MIDC police station here under Section 14 of the SRP Act. They were arrested by the local police, who are investigating further,” IG Prakash Mutyal told The Indian Express.
Mutyal said, “the SRP Act is very strict on dereliction count and provides for jail term up to 14 years. It’s a reserve force and has to be available for the duties called upon to perform.”
The press note adds: “The two policemen have constantly refused to attend duty outside Nagpur for four years. While Pande has seven counts of punishments, including a demotion, for earlier defaults on duty, Lanjewar had as many as 41, including a demotion and curtailment of an increment. They were asked one last time before registration of offence if they would still make amends by attending the Gadchiroli duty. But they refused.”
