GHAZIABAD: During a verification drive at a slum cluster in Kaushambi a week ago, an SHO decided to “put pressure” on residents to reveal their true nationality by holding a cellphone to their back like a scanner and telling them it would automatically detect if they were illegals.The checks happened on Dec 23 in Bhowapur slum, which has around 50 shanties. All such verification exercises have an established protocol that are supposed to protect people’s dignity as security agencies go about their work.
But the team in Bhowapur led by SHO of Kaushambi police station Ajay Sharma thought there was nothing wrong in throwing in an element of alarm. The SHO’s phone scan method came to light through videos of the incident that surfaced on social media on Thursday. One 26-second video shows the SHO accompanied by other police officers and RAF personnel asking a slum dweller to show his identity card. When he furnishes one and says he is a resident of Araria in Bihar, Sharma asks him whether he is from Bihar or Bangladesh, to which the slum dweller replies that he is from Bihar. The SHO then decides to tell him he has a machine that “immediately” says where a person is from.The SHO then tells a constable to bring the machine (a mobile phone) and place it on the man’s back. The machine is showing Bangladesh, Sharma tells him. The slum dweller then says, “no sir, we are from Bihar”. Sharma goes on to ask who is a Bangladeshi at the slum if he is not. The slum dweller says there is no one.Asked about his verification method, Sharma defended his actions to TOI, saying he hadn’t said or done anything wrong but “tried to put pressure on them so that they reveal their true identity”. No one, he insisted, was harassed.A senior police officer said that a foot march was carried out during Christmas and New Year. On Dec 23, the same happened in which SHO asked some people of the area about their documents and identity. “But there was no such order from seniors,” the officer added.Commissioner of police J Ravindra Goud told TOI, “We are checking the details of the video and if any person is harassed by police, we will take action.”
