UP to set up security force empowered to arrest, search without warrants

The force will guard government buildings and offices, courts, airports, banks, financial and educational institutions and industrial units.

The Uttar Pradesh government on Sunday issued a notification for setting up a Special Security Force in the state, which will be empowered to conduct searches and arrest people without any prior warrants, PTI reported. Chief Minister Adityanath had approved the decision to form the force in June.

The Special Security Force will be tasked with the responsibility of guarding government buildings and offices, courts, airports, banks, financial and educational institutions and industrial units.

The UP government also said that courts will not take note of the actions of officers and other employees of the force without its permission, according to News18. An officer can detain a person and search his property if they have a reason to believe that a crime has been committed.

Uttar Pradesh Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi said that the government has ordered the director general of police to submit a plan for setting up the special force. “This is a dream project of the UP chief minister,” he said. “The basis of this force is an order of the High Court, which had ordered that there should be a specialised force for civil courts.”

Awasthi added that the force will consist of nearly 10,000 personnel. He added that in the first phase, the government will set up five battalions under the leadership an additional director general of police. “Expenses incurred in the first phase will be around Rs 1,747 crore,” Awasthi said.

In December, the Allahabad High Court had rebuked the state government over its week security arrangements in court premises. This happened a day after three men shot dead a murder-accused inside a court in the state’s Bijnor district. A court employee and a police officer were injured in the attack. In 2015, an armed man had entered a court in Muzaffarnagar district in the disguise of a lawyer and killed gangster Vicky Tyagi.