LUCKNOW: The UP government is all set to introduce the UP Special Police Establishment Act (UPSPEA) to enhance the quality of investigation and take quick action against officers involved in corruption.
The government is preparing the Act to give special power to the force so that it could work on the lines of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in dealing with complaints of corruption against senior officials.
A senior officer at DGP office said that the proposal of UPSPE Act has been formulated by DG, SIT, Renuka Mishra and presented before UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath on April 21. Now, a committee would be formed by the government to evaluate the proposed act.
“Currently in UP, the special investigation team (SIT), the Economic Offences Wing (EOW), crime branch, the crime investigation department (CB-CID) and also the Anti-Corruption Organisation (ACO) are parts of the UP police and work by a government order. But under the new proposal it will come under an act,” said a senior officer at the DGP headquarters.
Additional director general of police, law and order, Prashant Kumar said that benchmarking of the investigation agencies on the lines of CBI will be done under the act and it will be an umbrella under which the investigation by the government will add more teeth to it. Another senior officer said that as per the new act, just like the CBI, a central forensic lab and a dedicated cyber lab for all the three major investigation agencies in the state have been mooted, while there is also a provision for setting up of a mini-technical lab.
He added that the proposed cyber lab would be fully equipped to give an on-the-spot report required for analysis of 100 computers, mobile handsets and other gadgets. “Sometimes these gadgets have to be seized which requires multiple legal procedures. But under the new act power will be entrusted with the agency,” the officer said and added that currently if the three investigating agencies in UP require services of a chartered accountant they would have to seek the government permission. However, under the new act, heads of the investigating agencies can hire any resource person or an expert required for a particular work.
The overall objective of the act is to bring more transparency and ensure qualitative investigation.
