Punjab Police makes major strikes in controlling crime and maintaining peace during tenure of DGP Suresh Arora : Dinkar Gupta

Says will carry forward legacy of Arora, work with utmost dedication to bring accountability in police force

5 Dariya News

Chandigarh 07-Feb-2019

Punjab Police have made major strikes in controlling crime and maintaining peace during tenure of DGP Suresh Arora and have busted 24 terrorist modules besides solved 08 targeted killings, sacrilege cases. In addition to this, sustained action against drugs and organized crime with busting of 51 criminal gangs, maintenance of law & order and focus on police welfare were key achievements of state police.Disclosing this here after formally taking over charge as DGP, Dinkar Gupta said a sharp decline in heinous crimes was recorded and tracing of important terrorist incidents like the targeted killings which rocked the state in 2015 and 2016 were achieved by the police under the able guidance of Arora.He added that solving of sacrilege incidents, successful maintenance of law & order in the wake of difficult situations like the conviction of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and busting of numerous terrorist modules are the prominent accomplishments of Punjab police. “Upgrading the counter-terrorism capacity of state Police by setting-up crack force Special Operations Group (SOG) and capacity building of Police force by implementation of Crime and Criminal Tracking Systems (CCTNS) and National Emergency Response System (NERS) marked the three and a half year tenure of Suresh Arora as DGP of the sensitive border state of Punjab”, he added.Dinkar Gupta said DGP Arora was also responsible for successful conduct of the 2014 Lok Sabha and the 2017 Vidhan Sabha elections in the state, besides several by-elections, state-wide Municipal and Panchayat elections. Listing out more successes Gupta said in the wake of conviction of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh by a Panchkula court in August 2017, Punjab Police led by Suresh Arora from the front, geared itself up and successfully maintained law & order in the state.Interacting with media DGP Gupta said busting of a terrorist module in Moga on November 8, 2017 led to the solving of all the eight cases of targeted killing of activists/leaders associated with minority communities masterminded by Punjab terrorists based in Pakistan and support in providing logistical and financial support to the terror modules by handlers based in Europe, North America and Middle East. He added that Punjab police had successfully countered the growing radicalization taking place through social media by identifying and acting against the major operatives based in North America and Europe.

Divulging more he said Punjab Police had busted 24 terrorist modules, arrested 115 terrorists, recovered 06 AK47/AK56/AK74 rifles, 04 other rifles and 65 revolvers/pistols in the tenure of DGP Arora. In addition to this, Punjab Police have also solved the cases of sacrilege at religious places which had rocked the state leading to major upheaval and disturbances among the people by arresting the entire group of perpetrators. “At the same time, a campaign to motivate persons managing religious institutions to install CCTV cameras at these religious places was launched, and today there are over 36,000 CCTV cameras in the state, including over 24,500 at religious places,” he informed.Dinkar added that a sustained focus on drugs led to the seizure of 810.767 kg heroin, 1222.68 kg opium, 1,23,200 kg poppy husk during the tenure of Arora. “With the formation of the Special Task Force (STF), the Punjab Police broadened its fight against drugs by including de-addiction and education as well and important cross-border smugglers were arrested,” he said.DGP said the crack counter-terrorism force Special Operations Group (SOG) was set-up by Punjab in January 2018 for acting effectively to neutralize the threat of fidayeen attacks, hostage situations, armed infiltration etc.. “The raising of SOG was conceived by DGP Arora out of the experience of coordinating with the armed forces and NSG in neutralising the fidayeen terrorist attack on Pathankot air base in January 2016”, he added.Giving more details he said Punjab Police strengthened its second line of defence to thwart cross-border terrorism across the international border with Pakistan by providing equipments and vehicles to the border districts, including BP Morchas, Thermal Imagers, BP Tractors, Body Protectors, Micro UAVs etc..“Punjab Police cracked down on organized criminal gangs, neutralizing as many 51 gangs with arrest of 255 gang members in the tenure of DGP Arora. 

Important gangsters like Gurpreet Sekhon, Vicky Gonder, Neeta Deol, Gurbax Singh Sewawala, Aman Dhotian, Jaspreet Singh @ Jumpy Don, Bobby Malhotra, Dilpreet Singh @ Baba and others were arrested/neutralized. In addition to this, as many as 647 weapons and 345 vehicles have been recovered from the organized criminal gangs”, he added.Dinkar said Punjab Police, under the leadership of DGP Suresh Arora took major strides in initiating welfare measures for police personnel. A separate channel of funds for police welfare has been established by State Government through which Rs.25 crores have been funnelled in the last two years alone, leading to implementation of many welfare schemes. Special Family Pension for widows/family members of police martyrs had been instituted, thus fulfilling a long-standing demand.For reaching out to the police force and responding to their suggestions, Dinkar said DGP Arora was always accessible and responsive. He has started a system of obtaining suggestions through email for improvements in police functioning from all police personnel, rewarding worthwhile suggestions and implementing them as well. Besides, as a measure to reduce stagnation among its ranks, an Assured Career Progression Scheme, popularly known as the 16-24-30 scheme, had also been launched by the Punjab Police in July 2018, assuring local rank promotion to the police officials after putting-in a fixed number of years of service.He further added that the community policing programme of Punjab Police SAANJH has been recognized by BPR&D as a model and rewarded by Government of India. This program is providing 43 services to the citizens through 27 district kendras, 114 sub-divisional kendras and 363 police station kendras, he informed.