Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday directed the state’s anti-Romeo squads to step up their presence across all districts, reiterating that women’s safety remains a top priority for his government.
The squads, comprising police personnel, were introduced in 2017 shortly after Adityanath assumed office, with the stated aim of curbing sexual harassment outside colleges and in public spaces. However, they have often drawn criticism for harassing young couples in consensual relationships.
According to Uttar Pradesh Police chief Prashant Kumar, the teams had checked over 4.5 crore individuals at 1.8 crore locations and registered more than 24,000 cases till February this year, The Indian Express reported.
Over the years, media reports have highlighted allegations of excesses by the squads, including extortion, public humiliation and extra-legal punishments such as forcing individuals to do sit-ups, shaving heads or blackening faces.
On Sunday, Adityanath also announced that a fresh phase of the Mission Shakti campaign, launched in 2020 to enhance women’s safety and empowerment, would begin during Navratri starting September 22. The initiative, introduced in the aftermath of the Hathras gangrape and murder case, included measures such as setting up separate rooms for women complainants in over 1,500 police stations, staffed by female constables to ensure prompt response.
The Hathras case involved the brutal assault of a 19-year-old Dalit woman in September 2020 by four upper-caste men. She succumbed to her injuries two weeks later in New Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital. The incident triggered nationwide outrage after she was hastily cremated by authorities without her family’s participation.
While the Uttar Pradesh administration has maintained that rape did not occur, citing a forensic report that found no traces of sperm in samples collected 11 days after the alleged assault, doctors at Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, where she was initially treated, dismissed the report as unreliable due to the delay in evidence collection.