Lucknow, Nov 5 (IANS): The UP Police has launched the ‘Jagriti’ campaign that has been initiated against the woman lodging false cases and misleading cops.
To curb such cases and to make more women aware of the need to stay clear of such ‘tactics’, the state’s additional director general (ADG, Agra zone), Anupam Kulshrestha said the campaign titled ‘Jagriti’ aimed at creating awakening on the issue.
The first phase of this three-month campaign, launched in seven districts of Agra (zone) including Hathras, Kasganj, Mathura, Firozabad, Mainpuri, Etah and Aligarh, will be run with the help of United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF). The response (post drive) will be collected in the second phase.
It is aimed at making women, mainly in rural areas aware about not making false allegations and registering fake FIRs of rape and sexual harassment, officials said.
In August 2022, the Allahabad high court had directed the CBI to probe allegations about a gang in Prayagraj that had been filing fake rape cases and crimes under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act to blackmail victims.
About 51 such ‘doubtful’ cases were listed before the court then.
Earlier this year, the Allahabad high court again raised concern over fake rape cases being registered by some women to get financial aid and turn hostile thereafter during the court trial.
“We started working on this Jagriti campaign after noticing a trend of false cases of rape and sexual harassment in property dispute and family enmity soon after joining as the ADG Zone on August 19,” said Kulshrestha.
“The campaign is to awaken women and girls to not become decoy in such property and family disputes and make false allegations,” the officer said. The campaign is launched as a pilot project and could be replicated in other zones too.
Inspector general (IG) of police, (Agra range), Deepak Kumar explained that the campaign is also aimed at awakening women that registering fake cases may even land them in legal trouble. “Registering fake cases may even land the complainant in jail, the prison term varying from six months to two years,” he said.
Kulshrestha said the police and officers of different departments and counsellors have been given target to reach out to 12 lakh women and girls of 13,500 blocks and villages across seven districts.
“It is not true that every such case is fake, but several cases had surfaced in the past some years where people were falsely implicated in crime against women. He said such cases should be probed properly and action should be taken accordingly,” said the officers.