UP government forms Special Security Force which can ‘search, arrest without warrant’

The Government aims to form the force in the next three months with 9,900 personnel in the first month.

The Uttar Pradesh government has come up with a plan to set up a special force with powers similar to the CISF (Central Industrial Security Force), the Uttar Pradesh government said last night.

The force can search and arrest without a warrant, it added.

According to the government, the Uttar Pradesh Special Security Force (UPSSF) will be tasked to protect courts, airports, administrative buildings, metros, banks, among other government offices.

UP DGP told to draw up a plan for new special force in 3 days. The Government aims to form the force in the next three months with 9,900 personnel in the first month, it said.

Taking it to Twitter, the UP government said, “Eight battalions of the UPSSF will be constituted initially at a cost of Rs 1,747.06 crore. The initial infrastructure for the force would come from the PAC (Provincial Armed Constabulary), a special unit of the UP Police. The UPSSF will be a dream project for Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.”

The tweets by the UP government quoted Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi.

“Any member of the force can, without the prior permission of any magistrate and without any warrant, arrest any person,” it said.

The move has come under criticism from the opposition on the government’s move.

The powers being given to the UPSSF are similar to the CISF, the central force that guards similar installations.

“Any member of the force may, without any order from a magistrate and without a warrant, arrest any person who voluntarily cause hurt to, or attempts voluntarily to cause hurt to, or wrongfully restrains or attempts wrongfully to restrain or assaults, or uses, or threatens or attempts to use criminal force to any employee,” section 11 of the CISF Act 1968 said.