The UPSSF “will be a dream project” for Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, a government official said.
Lucknow:
A special force will be established in Uttar Pradesh, with powers similar to the CISF (Central Industrial Security Force), which can search and arrest without a warrant, the state government said on Sunday. The Uttar Pradesh Special Security Force or UPSSF will be tasked with protecting courts, airports, administrative buildings, subways, banks, among other state government offices.
In a series of late-night posts, the UP government’s Twitter account quoted Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi as saying that “eight battalions of the UPSSF will initially be constituted at a cost of Rs 1747.06 crore.” The initial infrastructure of the force would come from the PAC (Provincial Armed Police), a special unit of the UP Police. The UPSSF “will be a dream project” for Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Awasthi said.
“Any member of the force can, without the prior permission of any magistrate and without a warrant, arrest anyone,” said one of the tweets, adding that “separate rules would be framed for this section.”
The government’s latest move has been questioned by many, as critics pointed out that the draconian search and arrest powers could be abused.
There has been no formal response from the government to the criticism, however sources have stressed that the powers granted to the UPSSF are similar to the CISF, the central force that guards similar facilities.
“Any member of the force may, without a magistrate’s order and without a court order, arrest any person who voluntarily causes harm or voluntarily attempts to cause harm, or unduly restrains or improperly attempts to restrict or assault or use, or threatens or attempts to use criminal force to any employee, “says section 11 of the 1968 CISF Act, UP government officials said.
Section 12 of the CISF Act reads: “Provided that any member of the Force not below the prescribed range has reason to believe that an offense such as the one mentioned in section 11 has been or is being committed and is not you can obtain a search warrant without giving the offender a chance to escape or conceal evidence of the crime, you can arrest the offender and search your person and belongings immediately and, if you see fit, arrest anyone from whom you have reasons to believe that he has committed the crime. “
.
