Police rue being portrayed as ‘corruptors of society’
SHILLONG: As many as 984 cases were chargesheeted in connection with illegal extraction and transportation of coal from 2015 to 2019 after registering 1,281 cases against those involved.
The Assistant Inspector General of Police (A) Meghalaya, GK Iangrai, on Wednesday said the police had taken various steps to contain illegal transportation of coal.
Iangrai, with reference to the ‘Meghalaya Police Compromised’ published in The Shillong Times on Wednesday, said that in 2019 alone, 176 cases were registered, which clearly shows that the police department is putting concerted efforts towards curbing of prohibited activities of coal extraction and transportation.
In a statement, Iangrai also said that the cases, which have been registered in separate police stations throughout the years, are mostly suo motu cases, “which means that the FIRs were filed by police officers and personnel and not by any other individual thereby signifying that the department is committed towards thwarting illegal activities relating to coal extraction and transportation”. The Assistant IGP also lamented the department being ‘portrayed as corruptors of the society’.
“Lastly, there are other agencies of the state machinery which are looking after the administration of the major mineral, and the police department is only the law-enforcing agency which acts as the sentinels of law; but once again, the department has been portrayed as corruptors of the society who has to be axed, despite the successful maintenance of the fragile law and order situation which subsisted in the past year, and the thwarting of various crimes such as the menaces of drugs among others,” Iangrai said.