The Uttar Pradesh government issued a notice on Sunday for the establishment of a Special Security Force in the state, which will be empowered to search and arrest people without any prior warrant, PTI reported. Prime Minister Adityanath had approved the decision to form the force in June.
The Special Security Force will be responsible for monitoring government buildings and offices, courts, airports, banks, financial and educational institutions, and industrial units.
The UP government also said that the courts will not take note of the actions of officers and other employees of the force without their permission, according to News18. An officer can arrest a person and search their property if they have reason to believe that a crime has been committed.
Uttar Pradesh (Interior) Additional Chief Secretary Awanish Awasthi said the government ordered the police director general to present a plan to establish the task force. “This is a dream project of the prime minister of the UP,” he said. “The basis of this force is an order from the High Court, which had ordered that there should be a specialized force for the civil courts.”
Awasthi added that the force will consist of nearly 10,000 people. He added that in the first phase, the government will establish five battalions under the leadership of an additional director general of police. “The expenses incurred in the first phase will be around 1,747 million rupees,” Awasthi said.
In December, the Allahabad High Court had reprimanded the state government for its weekly security arrangements at the courthouse premises. This came a day after three men shot dead a murder defendant inside a court in the Bijnor state district. A court employee and a police officer were injured in the attack. In 2015, a gunman entered a court in the Muzaffarnagar district disguised as a lawyer and killed the gangster Vicky Tyagi.
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