In ex-UP DGP’s memoir, stories of secret meet with Gogoi before Ayodhya verdict & ‘rattling’ BSP

In ex-UP DGP’s memoir, stories of secret meet with Gogoi before Ayodhya verdict & ‘rattling’ BSP

Lucknow: A day before the Supreme Court (SC) was to give its verdict on the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi case, the then chief justice of India Ranjan Gogoi called Uttar Pradesh chief secretary and director general of police (DGP) to Delhi to brief the three judges about the state’s law and order situation, a new book has revealed.

Titled Crime, Grime & Gumption — Case Files of an IPS officer, the book is a memoir of Om Prakash Singh, former UP DGP and ex-chief of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and Central industrial Security Force (CISF).

“The clock was ticking. India’s most significant and sensitive case was just away from the Supreme Court’s final pronouncement. The entire state and the bordering states were on high alert. The security measures were unprecedented, but equally surprising was a call from the office of the Chief Justice of India (CJI), Justice Ranjan Gogoi. It was November 7. The chief secretary and I were directed by the CJI to give a briefing about the law-and-order situation in his court chamber in New Delhi the following day,” Singh writes.

Terming the move as “unprecedented”, Singh adds in his book, “Never before had the court directed UP DGP for such a briefing”, with an account of how he, as the DGP, along with the then chief secretary R.K. Tiwari “boarded the state aircraft to keep the meeting time at New Delhi”.

“The air in the chamber of the CJI was stiff. Three judges were in attendance when we walked into the room. Terse introductions followed. Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice S.A. Bobde and Justice Ashok Bhushan sat with focused attention as I began the detailed presentation of the security scenario and the sectoral measures,” it says.

The meeting lasted for more than an hour and the duo returned only after addressing each of the justices, he recounts.

Elaborating on the CM’s role, he writes that Yogi Adityanath positioned himself in the UP police headquarters to monitor the situation every second and ensure immediate decision-taking if an emergent situation was to develop.

Speaking to ThePrint about that meeting on 8 November 2019, Singh said that at the time, both he and Tiwari were unaware of the fact that the judges would be pronouncing the judgment the very next day.

“We were not prepared for the meeting…. We didn’t know when the judgment would come in. We went to the CJI’s chamber. The meeting started at 12 pm and ended at 1 pm exactly. Three of the judges asked us about the law-and-order situation on ground. We shared with them the precautionary measures being taken and I explained to them the various steps being taken to monitor social media, physical patrolling, community engagement with Hindus and Muslim leaders because tempers were running high,” he said.

“Although we didn’t know what the judgment was going to be, we knew that one of the communities would be feeling defeated. I explained to the honourable judges about the sensitive areas in western UP, eastern UP, etc and gave them the entire picture of the state, the activation of the emergency operation centre,” he added.

Singh said that soon after they exited the meeting, he headed to Agra for another meeting but was caught by surprise in the evening when he got a news alert that the judgment would be out the next day.

“I had planned to travel to Lucknow the next day but because of that news alert, I travelled the whole night and reached Lucknow from Agra by road, instructing each and every district police chief that the judgment would be out the next day, and asking them to exercise caution. Temples, mosques were already being guided and communal elements had been rounded up. We wanted to ensure they were taken care of,” he said.

On the commissionerate system

In his memoir, Singh further mentions how elements within the bureaucracy had made covert efforts to undermine the project to implement the police commissionerate system in Kanpur in 1978.

Under the system, the police commissioner is given several of the powers of the district magistrate, like issuance of orders to maintain peace, imposition of section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and curfew, enforcement of gangster and goonda act and powers to regulate, manufacture and issue licenses for explosives.

“The commissionerate system was once the foremost agenda in the state more than four decades back, when it was proposed to be first introduced in the city of Kanpur. Vasudev Panjani, a 1954-batch IPS officer, was personally selected to assume the role of the inaugural commissioner of police of Kanpur in 1978. In a bid to prepare for this role, he, alongside the then home secretary K.K. Bakshi embarked on research trips to cities like Mumbai, Pune and Chennai to study the commissionerate system. However, during this period, elements within the bureaucracy undertook covert efforts to undermine the project, ultimately leading to its cancellation,” he writes.

The book states that while the proposal remained dormant for more than four decades, the police leadership took it up with the CM Yogi Adityanath in 2018.

It notes that the precipitous moment for the implementation of the system came when the Shaheen Bagh formula of protest was attempted in Lucknow.

“I was at the newly inaugurated police headquarters when news came in that a crowd of about 500 people had descended at one of the roundabouts near Hazratganj, Lucknow, and were refusing to budge. The protest against the act in Delhi had already seen continued occupation of public roads and spaces throwing into disarray public convenience. I was determined to ensure that no such scenario emerged in UP. Any attempt to occupy public spaces for protest would be thwarted, I assured the CM over the phone. I knew the situation demanded quick and decisive action. In the moments to follow, I donned a bullet-proof vest and a baton in hand. I led my team towards the protest site which was a very prominent traffic junction of the state capital and connected with the old areas of the city,” it says.

As police action began and the crowd was made to disperse, restless protestors resorted to violence.

“Post-CAA protests set the tone for a face-to-face exchange with CM Yogi Adityanath. The police had no magisterial powers yet but they needed the moral-boosting support of being capable of taking timely decisions,” the book says. “At the first instance of the CM enquiring about the CAA protests and how to prevent them from recurring, I seized the moment and mentioned outright, ‘Sir, had the commissionerate system been in operation, we would have contained the agitation far more effectively and in good time.”

“I will give your proposal serious thought. How soon can we get the paperwork done?” replied the CM, and the stage for the implementation of a commissionerate system in two major cities of UP was set — Noida and Lucknow.

Speaking on the subject, Singh said that ever since his appointment as DGP in 2018, he remained very firm that the system was the need of the hour and he had been mustering support for the idea, mentioning the subject to the CM, the governor and other ministers.

“I had been hammering about it all along, at every forum or formal or informal discussions. The CM needed reasons to prove that it was a better system. However, when the CAA disturbances took place, I thought it was the right time to convince him that a very senior police officer should be at the helm of affairs of a district like Lucknow and that police and magisterial powers be combined in at least some of the metropolitical districts,” he said.

But what is his opinion of the system that has attracted resistance from the IAS lobby, four years later?

“Certainly, crime management is better in places like Noida or Lucknow now. Policed by so many officers in various zones, there is an enhanced responsibility on police which has more revenue powers. However, we need to review the situation to facilitate better crime management,” he said.

‘Riling up’ BSP

In his book, Singh also writes of the curious turn of events in April 1994 when the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) locked horns over the encounter of a criminal from the Gujjar caste.

Mahendra Fauji, a gangster with several criminal cases lodged against him, had become a problem for gangsters from Yadav and Tyagi castes, but the Bulandshahr Police gunned him down.

The timing of the encounter upset the BSP, which lost the Hastinapur bypoll, and blamed it on the killing of Fauji which allegedly upset Gujjars.

“Apparently, the Gujjar community had lent their support to the BSP. The party claimed that the killing of Mahendra Fauji had upset the apple cart for the Hastinapur assembly seat, part of Meerut district, which was going to bypolls… The BSP was so riled up by the encounter that Kanshi Ram and Mayawati demanded my suspension from their coalition partner. Not just the timing of the encounter, but the encounter itself began to be described as ingenuine,” he wrote in a chapter titled, ‘The Tsunami Years’.

However, rather than conceding to the BSP’s demand, within days of the incident, the then CM rewarded Singh by appointing him as senior superintendent of police (SSP), Lucknow — a post viewed as a promotion of sorts in UP Police circles.

In his memoir, however, Singh mentions that he doesn’t know what prompted Yadav to take that decision.

“The month of May 1994 brought a new development and rather, a bold one. Till date, I don’t quite know what prompted Mulayam Singh Yadav to take the decision of posting me as SSP Lucknow. Yes, Lucknow…. Personally, it was an assurance that good work always gets recognition. On the political front, Mulayam Singh’s move caused a political storm. Considering the political dynamics and expediency, it made no sense. The consequence? This move further incensed the coalition partner, the BSP,” the book says.

However, days after, another incident of four Dalits with criminal antecedents being lynched in a Thakur-dominated village of Bulandshahr had the BSP “completely rattled” and in a high-octane press conference held by Kanshi Ram and Mayawati in Lucknow on 10 June, 1994, they demanded his transfer and suspension by the government.

The incident finally led Yadav to transfer Singh from Lucknow, but gave him another important posting of his choice — as SSP, Kumbh Mela.

“Apko suspend nahi kar rahe, transfer kar rahe hain…SSP sahab. If I don’t transfer you, the BSP will withdraw support and my government will fall. We have to undergo this drill,” Yadav told Singh in a midnight meeting at the former’s residence at Vikramaditya Marg, the memoir says.

(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)