Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has condemned the deployment of police officers dressed as priests at the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi. The Samajwadi Party (SP) chief demanded the suspension of the officers and wondered who ordered to deployment of cops in such attire.   

On the orders of Varanasi Police Commissioner Mohit Agarwal, the male and female policemen have been deployed in the temple in the priests’ attire. While the female policemen were wearing a ‘salwar kurta’, the male policemen were in a ‘dhoti-kurta’.

Yadav questioned the system in UP and asked according to which police manual is it correct for policemen to be dressed as priests. Those who give such orders should be suspended, he added. If tomorrow any ‘thag’ (fraudster) takes advantage of this and loots the innocent public, then what will the UP government and administration answer, he further asked. He called it Condemnable in a post on X.

Police Commissioner Agarwal had earlier told reporters that people who come from far away places to have obeisance have regard for the priests and they often get hurt if they are pushed forward by the policemen.

The duty in the temple is different from other places as police have to manage different types of crowds here. The crowd here is not for creating law and order problems. The police are here to ensure easy darshan to people and help and guide them, the police officer said.

He added the devotees get hurt if being pushed by policemen, if the same thing is done by priests they take it in a positive way. Following the no-touch policy, policemen are being deployed in priests’ attire.

The Samajwadi Party had earlier announced its candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple Yadav will be contesting from her existing seat in Mainpuri.

In a shameful incident from Uttar Pradesh’s Bijnor, a group of individuals harassed a Muslim family and threw Holi colours on them amid Jai Shri Ram slogans. Bijnor Police, taking cognisance of the video that has gone viral on social media platforms, arrested one person as well as detained three juveniles in the case.

According to police, the incident took place on March 20in the Dhampur area of the city of Bijnor district in UP.  The video shared widely on the internet shows individuals applying colours forcibly, heckling a Muslim family and shouting religious slogans while playing Holi with them. The group surrounded the family, one man and two women sitting on a motorcycle, who were on their way. They applied colour forcibly and threw water on them without obtaining their consent for the same.

Further, with such behaviour from the individuals, the Muslim family resisted it and when the family asked them to stop colouring them, they started shouting slogans, Jai Shri Ram and Har Har Mahadev (Hindu slogans).

The Bijnor Police in the case arrested one person and detained three juveniles in connection with the matter.

The Bijnor Police has acknowledged the video that is gaining popularity on social media. A group of men in a viral video can be seen harassing and forcibly applying colours on a family riding a motorcycle. In a video on X, SSP Bijnor, Neeraj Jaduan, mentioned that the Bijmor Police is relying on CCTV footage to identify these men.

The CO has been directed by SSP Bijnor to reach out to the family and file an FIR, as stated in a press release.

After receiving a complaint from the affected family, Circle Officer (CO) Dhampur has been instructed to file an FIR and ensure investigation under his supervision…

In a strange incident, a trans person was arrested for allegedly setting the car of her ex-boyfriend on fire over marriage refusal in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur. The irked trans person took the step out of anger after her ex-boyfriend had refused to marry the transgender despite a purported relationship between them.    

The initial reports suggest that the trans person got her gender changed thinking her boyfriend would marry her. However, her marriage proposal was refused by him, which triggered her to take this step.

According to reports, the ex-boyfriend, identified as Annop Shukla, whose car was set alight on March 4. Shukla and the accused transgender had befriended each other on Instagram, and they were in a long-distance relationship.

The accused, a resident of Indore, reached Kanpur, her ex-boyfriend Shukla’s residence with the other two poured petrol on it and set the car alight. The incident, which was caught on CCTV camera, led to the arrest of the accused who were attempting to escape with their accomplices.

The police have apprehended two other individuals, Rohan Yadav and Deep Tanwani, who came with the accused and are believed to have set fire to the car. Further investigation into the matter is underway, as per the reports.

In another incident from Kerala, last year in February, a special court in Thiruvananthapuram, sentenced a transgender person to seven years in prison for sexually assaulting a minor boy in early 2016.

Special Judge, Aaj Sudarshan, Thiruvananthapuram Fast Track Special Court, ruled 34-year-old transwoman Sachu Samson, alias Shefina, guilty in the case of sexual abuse of a 16-year-old boy. Samson, a resident of Anathalavattom near Chirayinkeezhu, was handed seven years of rigorous imprisonment and also slapped with a fine of Rs 25,000.

The judge ordered that failure to pay the fine would result in imprisonment for an additional year. The transgender was found guilty of the offences under Section 377 (unnatural offences) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 3(d) (penetrative sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.