Bhopal: Director general of police (DGP) Rishi Shukla again grabbed limelight by asking the cops to stay away from social media. Notably, since Shukla took over as DGP in July, 2016, number of heinous crimes took place in the district bringing disrepute to the state. The rise in number of incidents of crime in 2017 was 12 per cent more than that of 2016.
Among other discredits of the police, the number of gang rape cases too has gone up by 39 per cent; and six farmers were shot dead by police in Mandsaur. Besides, eight people died and nearly 100 were injured during Bharat bandh on April 2. The number of communal clashes and incidents of crime against women also shot up during Shukla’s tenure as DGP.
According to insiders, after failing to maintain law and order in the Capital, Shukla has been pouring out his anger on media and social media as no action has been taken yet against any of the officers found guilty in checking the April 2 rampage. On an earlier occasion, Shukla through a video conferencing had asked police officials to stay away from media. However, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan himself had asked the police officers to maintain cordial relations with media.
BJP spokesperson Rahul Kothari said the circular issued by the DGP about media had nothing to do with the party. “It is true that the police should be in direct touch with people and careful about the rumours spread through social media,” Kothari said.
Congress spokesperson JP Dhanopia said “Police should do their work and journalists theirs. The government wanted to gag media through police before election, and the DGP’s instruction that the cops should interact with media after taking permission from him is not at all a right approach.”
