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UP polls: Cop fights for pride of Vardi

Like other candidates, the fate of retired police constable Chehan Singh is also locked in the EVM on Saturday. Singh…

UP polls: Cop fights for pride of Vardi

Representational image (Photo: Getty Images)

Like other candidates, the fate of retired police constable Chehan Singh is also locked in the EVM on Saturday. Singh is in the fray to fight for the pride of the ‘Vardi’ (Police Uniform) on Shiv Sena ticket against former Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) MLA Yakub Qureshi, who had once thrashed him badly in the course of discharging his police duty.

“My fight is to uphold and save the pride of police uniform which is not safe in the rule of both the SP and the BSP,” said Singh, who filed his nomination on Monday from Meerut South city on the Shiv Sena ticket. He has challenged BSP candidate Yakub Qureshi and is confident of defeating him in this election.

The incident which changed the life of Singh dates back to February 17, 2011. “It was a day of Ravidas Jayanti and there was a diversion of routes due to which the traffic was restricted at Hapur stand where I was on duty,” Singh recalls, adding that while he was on duty a numberless car with four hooters came there which was driven by Yakub`s driver.

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When I prevented him from taking that route, he threatened me and called Yakub on phone who arrived there with about 20 people within next 15 minutes, he said, adding that on arrival Yakub and his aides not only thrashed him but also tore his uniform. The Circle officer and SO present there also did not come for the support as Yakub was the BSP MLA, which was in power at that time.

Singh reported the matter to the DIG but nothing happened. Later, SP city Prabal Pratap Singh called him and asked for a compromise while he had gone to him with his complaint against the MLA. “I then gave my resignation as the matter was now of my pride,” Singh said, adding that the same night his house was raided but his complaint was not registered which he got lodged on March 26, 2011 on intervention of the court. “I had than wowed to contest the election against Yakub from whichever seat he would contest,” he quipped.

Meanwhile, his resignation was never accepted and he got retired in February 2016 after which he joined Shiv Sena. “My fight is only for the pride of the Vardi as there has been many cases of assault on the cops and many a times they do not even get support of their department,” he said claiming that Vardi is not safe in the rule of neither the SP nor the BSP. There were 1575 instances when the cops were beaten up during the rule of Mayawati while the figure shot upto 1625 in the SP rule and many were murdered, he said.

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