Taking serious note of the embarrassing incident wherein an alleged Indian Mujahideen operative Afzal Usmani escaped from court premises, the commissioner of police has issued a new set of strict, and interesting, guidelines to all policemen from the escort unit of the department. The CP’s guidelines mainly include secret videography of those policemen who help accused/undertrials or allow them to speak to their relatives and use their cellphone in the court compound. Interestingly, the CP also ordered the escort policemen to make sure that accused/undertrials do not lock the lavatory from inside in order to avert any untoward incident. A senior official, while confirming the issuance of the guidelines by the CP, said, “While issuing the order, the force chief mentioned that he had found that the same policemen being assigned to escort accused/undertrials led to the latter befriending the policemen, leading to the loosening of control over them. The accused then take this advantage to flee from police custody.” The officer further added that the commissioner observed that policemen escorting accused/undertrials let them use cellphones, while some policemen even shared their tiffins brought by the relatives of accused/undertrials in the court compound. This maligns the reputation of the police, said the CP order. It also ordered that strict disciplinary action would be taken against the policemen caught indulging in such activities. The in-charge of the unit to which the culprit policemen is attached would also face strict action.
