Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath on Sunday directed the state’s so-called anti-Romeo teams, which were introduced with the purported aim of preventing sexual harassment of women, to become more active in all districts.
The Bharatiya Janata Party government had launched the anti-Romeo teams in 2017 when Adityanath became the chief minister. The teams, consisting of police personnel, mostly targeted boys found outside girls’ colleges and those allegedly involved in harassing women.
However, they also faced criticism for harassing several couples in consensual relationships.
In March, UP Police chief Prashant Kumar said that till February, the teams had checked more than 4.5 crore persons at 1.8 crore locations and filed over 24,000 cases, reported The Indian Express.
Media reports have shown that in the past, the teams have taken a range of extra-legal actions, including extortion in exchange for persons to be released and public shaming rituals such as sit-ups, head-shavings and blackening faces.
On Sunday, Adityanath said that the “safety of women and daughters remained a top priority” of the government and announced that a new phase of Mission Shakti would be launched during the Hindu festival of Navratri, starting September 22.
Adityanath had launched the Mission Shakti campaign in October 2020 following widespread criticism and outrage after the Hathras gangrape and murder case. The chief minister had claimed that the campaign was meant to ensure the safety, security and honour of women.
He had announced that there would be separate rooms for women complainants in 1,535 police stations, where a female police constable would attend to them and urgent action would be taken on their complaint.
The Hathras case pertains to four upper-caste men allegedly raping and brutally assaulting a 19-year-old girl in September 2020. She died of her injuries a fortnight later in New Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital.
The girl had suffered multiple fractures, a spinal injury and a deep cut on her tongue. She was hastily cremated at midnight, without allowing her family to perform the last rites.
The Uttar Pradesh administration has consistently denied that the woman was raped, based on a report from the forensic lab that had said there were no traces of sperm in samples taken from her.
But the chief medical officer at Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College – where the woman was first admitted – had said that the forensic lab’s report “holds no value” as it relied on samples taken 11 days after the alleged crime was committed.
Also read:Anti-Romeo squads, Operation Durga: How the BJP subverts women’s rights while policing the streets
You’ve read Scroll.
Now help sustain it
Scroll is funded by readers, not corporate owners. If you believe our work matters, support our newsroom. Become a member today!
We’re not driven by clicks or corporate interests – just honest, independent reporting. Keep us going. Support Scroll today!