Uttar Pradesh police in Kanpur seems to have given the phrase, ‘have money will travel’ a spin of their own. The police, when approached by a widow for help in seeking her abducted daughter, said that they would do so if she gave them the money to fill diesel in their vehicle.
According to Gudiya, a differently-abled woman, she paid between Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000 to local policemen to fill diesel in their vehicles so that they would agree to search for her minor daughter, who she said, was kidnapped by a relative last month. Speaking to reporters at the commissioner’s office, Gudiya said that although she had filed a case about her missing daughter last month, she alleged that the police refused to help her.
Gudiya had approached the Kanpur police chief to file a complaint against the “erring officials”. “The officers told me that they were looking for my daughter. Sometimes they would shoo me away and cast aspersions on my daughter’s character. Then they said if I filled diesel in their vehicles they would search for my daughter.” She had to borrow money from relatives for the same.
When video clips of Gudiya describing her ordeal went viral, the Kanpur police tweeted that the police officer-in-charge, under whose jurisdiction the case of Gudiya’s missing daughter was registered, had been removed. The tweet added that a departmental inquiry into the matter has also been ordered.
The police’s official Twitter handle uploaded a video of the elderly woman being driven in a police vehicle from the Commissioner’s office to the concerned police station. According to the tweet, four teams have been formed to look for Gudiya’s daughter.
Rural SP Brijesh Kumar Shrivastava said, “We have asked the police station in-charge to immediately act on the case. All her allegations will be looked into, and if anyone is found guilty, we will take action.”
