Six serious crimes have rocked Lucknow in the last two weeks, apart from routine incidents. What was more shocking, however, was that most of these cases were because of police negligence or brutality. The situation even led to an intervention by Chief Minister Mayawati.

What forced Mayawati to act were two incidents that took place in the posh Hazratganj area of the city. First, on May 26, the police thrashed two boys who tried to stop some men from teasing their sisters outside a restaurant. Then on May 27, two boys stalked a girl, again in Hazratganj, and finally hit her on the head with an iron rod. The girl, a college student who also works at a call centre, fell unconscious.

The CM instructed the police top brass to take even the smallest incident seriously. She also asked the department to crack down on negligent cops or those involved in crimes. “Send them to jail if necessary,” she said. Besides, she instructed the police to be “humane” while dealing with the public. Before asking them to get back to work, she issued a stern warning: “There should be no repetition of Hazratganj.”

But on the next day, May 28, a BCom student was molested by her fellow students on the campus of the Lucknow University. Eventually, six policemen were suspended. The latest incident prompted a harassed SSP (city) Akhil Kumar to wonder, “Why do such activities take place only in Hazratganj?”

He couldn’t have been more wrong. On May 29, ex-BJP MP Sriram Rawat was gunned down by unidentified assailants around 11 in the morning. Rawat was the BJP candidate from Malihabad assembly seat in the last assembly elections. Clearly, these incidents weren’t restricted to Hazratganj.

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