It's a cop-out

TNN / Jan 4, 2007, 01:42 IST

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The UP state govt on Wednesday evening dismissed six police officers, including two inspectors and four sub-inspectors in Noida.

LUCKNOW: The state government on Wednesday evening dismissed six police officers, including two inspectors and four sub-inspectors, found to have been prima facie guilty of laxity in the case related to murder of a large number of children in Noida even as chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav said he was not prepared to hand over the inquiry to the CBI.
Chief secretary Naveen Chandra Bajpei told reporters that besides these dismissals, six police officers, including circle officer Sewak Ram Yadav, additional SP Saumitra Yadav and the then SSP Piyush Mordia, have been suspended.
The action was taken on the basis of the report submitted by a two-member fact-finding committee comprising of secretary home Arun Kumar Sinha and ADG (law and order) AC Sharma, constituted by the state government to look into the Noida killings. The report was submitted to the chief secretary on Wednesday evening.
Bajpei, in the presence of principal secretary home Satish Kumar Agarwal and director-general of police Bua Singh, said that in the report submitted by the fact-finding team, all these officers were found prima facie guilty of laxity in handling the case.

The chief secretary said that the state government has increased the compensation amount from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh to the families of the murdered children in Nithari village of Noida district. He said that till date 10 victims have been identified.
Earlier in the day, chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav said he was not prepared to hand over the inquiry into the case to the CBI.
Talking to reporters the chief minister said, "I am not averse to handing over the inquiry to CBI but since the state police has made a breakthrough and the investigation is moving in the right direction, there is no need for any other agency probing the dastardly crime committed in Noida."

Reposing faith in the competence of the state police, the chief minister said, "UP police is efficient enough to get to the bottom of the case."
He said that the CBI takes a long time in investigating a case and here the probe conducted by the state police was moving on a fast pace. "This the reason why we are not giving the investigation to CBI," said Yadav.
On being asked whether he would visit Nithari to assess the situation himself, the chief minister said, "If I visit the place, the attention of the authorities would get diverted towards me and this would hamper the progress of the inquiry." He added that some ministers and leaders of his party would certainly visit the area soon.

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