Haryana cops get dressing down from Hooda over Mirchpur

CHANDIGARH - Unable to control rising incidents of crime in the state, particularly the Mirchpur incident last month in Hisar district where houses of Dalit families were torched by the Jat community, the top brass of the Haryana Police Saturday got a dressing down from Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

Hooda, police sources said, told the senior officers that a repeat of the Mirchpur incident would not be tolerated.

Chairing a high-level meeting of police officers here, Hooda warned that if such an incident was repeated, the concerned district police chief would be held responsible.

A Dalit man and his handicapped daughter were killed after their house was set on fire by miscreants from the Jat community in Mirchpur village near Hisar city last month, 300 km from here.

Police officers had failed to take action when the miscreants attacked the Dalit homes. Two officials were later suspended by the Haryana government.

What stirred the Hooda government was the sudden visit of Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi to the village a few days after the incident to empathise with the Dalit families. Hooda, state ministers and even the state Congress president Phool Chand Mullana did not even get a whiff of Rahul Gandhi’s visit till he went back.

Later, Congress president Sonia Gandhi wrote a stern letter to the chief minister for the failure of his government to prevent the incident.

Since then, the Hooda government has been on overdrive to rehabilitate the Dalit families who were attacked.

Hooda told the meeting: “The Mirchpur incident should have been handled more efficiently. Such incidents should not be repeated and, in case, such an incident again occurs, the SP (superintendent of police) concerned would be held responsible. Dereliction of duty would not be tolerated.”

Hooda asked the Haryana Police to immediately set up a special cell to safeguard the weaker sections of society and to prevent crimes against them.

Asking police officers to be vigilant and not to allow small issues to turn into bigger problems, Hooda asked superintendents and inspector generals of police to visit all villages along with the local deputy commissioner in all districts.