In a major crackdown against erring personnel within police, DGP Nagaland Rupin Sharma disclosed that 43 police personnel were suspended under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985.
While departmental enquiry (DE) proceedings had been completed against 23, DE proceedings were pending against 20 personnel. He also said that seven police personnel have been dismissed from service among those suspended. (See Table)
Disclosing this to media persons after launching the ‘Made in Nagaland’ app (Report on p-3), here at police headquarters on Wednesday, Rupin Sharma also informed that around 30 police personnel have voluntarily sought for rehabilitation. He further said that drugs worth around Rs 25 crore were seized, 133 FIRs registered and 157 persons arrested between June and August this year.
Sharma said that the department was making decent progress with regard to drugs and mechanisms within had been strengthened. He also appealed to police personnel under substance abuse to come forward and report so that the department could assist them in their rehabilitation, as there would be no leniency if anyone was found out by the department.
Referring to extortion and drugs, Sharma claimed that the police had achieved reasonable success to combat extortion and drug related cases. He said the police were doing their best to stop all the reported extortion cases, and requested the people to come forward to report such cases.
On law and order situation in the state, he claimed that the overall situation was good. He admitted that there been a few fatal accidents in the last month and assured engaging with all stakeholders to try and improve traffic management.
He also expressed concern over rape cases and assured that the Police was doing its best to control the situation, rejecting the statement made by some people that the police were not doing their job properly.
Commenting on the video that went viral on social media and reportedly showed the poor quality of boots issued to the police personnel, the DGP revealed that preliminary analysis had been conducted.
“The rations and supply of uniform and other articles are a continuous process based on requirements in varying units and our own assessments. Sometimes the item will remain undistributed for various reasons,” he explained.
“So what we have ascertained is that the latest supply of shoes in this case that we got sometime this year, was cleared by in-line committees in August and distributed thereafter. So none of the current supply items are of bad quality,” he claimed.
He however admitted that there was a possibility that certain perishable commodities like shoes, if kept in stores for a long time, especially when the climate was humid, the sole and leather wore off, but he assured of looking into the matter for more concrete reason.
Sharma maintained that he would not cast aspersion on anyone as of now that the quality was bad because they the department was still looking into the dates of the particular boots that were shown in the video.
He also requested the person who had posted the video to share the details so that the department could determine whether the quality of the shoe was really bad or that the consignment was really old.
“Meanwhile, to make things better in the department and for the supplies, we have had a detailed consultation in the PHQ and we will try to improve a few things. So, we have initiated an exercise of existing stocks and we have requested the unit commander not to supply at least the perishable items from old stocks because we don’t want a confusion there,” he clarified.
He maintained that there were line committees to check the quality and quantity of supplies, and assured that the unit level would be expanded in order to upgrade and improve things.
Further, the DGP also requested police personnel to directly address to the department if they had any grievance, assuring that the department was ever ready to address them and not to go to the media.
No foul play in deaths of two Assam youth: DGP
As situation remained tense along the Assam-Nagaland border after bodies of two youths hailing from Sonari, Assam were found dead in Angjanyang area of Mon district on September 25, DGP Rupin Sharma has ruled out foul play.
“There is nothing to hide. It was a very terrible accident where two people lost their lives,” he said.
He mentioned that the preliminary objection raised by protestors from Assam side was regarding post mortem not being conducted. He said that post-mortem was not carried out since doctors were clear that injuries that led to the deaths of the two youths was due to accident and not otherwise. He, however, said that in order to rule out any foul play a post-mortem can still conducted.
It may be mentioned that Mon police on Monday recovered the bodies of two persons– Latil Nowholia and Utpal Tassa hailing from Assam, who were reportedly killed in an accident in Angjanyang area, Mon.
However, residents of Sonari alleged that the two youths were suspected to have been killed and not deaths by accident. Angry residents blocked the road in Sonari area leading to Nagaland on September 26.