‘Dabangg’ policemen win many a heart
Deepkamal Kaur
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, October 6
Showing exemplary courage of challaning ruling masters of the state, judicial officers and who’s who of their respective areas, two young, daring cops of the Punjab Police have won a great deal of popularity of the masses, which is evident from the response that they get on social media as well as at public gatherings.
Dentist-turned-cop from Jalandhar Dr Richa Agnihotri, presently serving as the ACP (Traffic) at Ludhiana, has over 14,000 followers on her FB page Ludhiana Traffic Police. Even the personal FB page of the PPS officer instantaneously gets over a 1,000 likes whenever she posts a news clip pertaining to a traffic-control activity in Ludhiana.
Similarly, when ASP Mukerian Dhruv Dahiya gets down on roads on law and order issues, almost every passerby in the town ensures that he stops close to him, salutes him and exchanges a greeting just to encourage him to continue his work relentlessly and without any bias. Whenever the IPS officer goes for an official duty for a public gathering, people line up to get a selfie clicked with him, with the tough but polite IPS officer trying to oblige as many people as possible.
The reason for the growing fan following of both “Dabangg” cops is that they have dared to take on even the Badals by challaning the Orbit buses they own, judges, MLAs and their kin at nakas, where they themselves stand on duty along with staff.
Just two days ago, Agnihotri had not just challaned two Orbit buses but had also the driver of Paramjit Kaur Shiwalik, Akali councillor and wife of Ludhiana MLA Darshan Singh Shiwalik, while she was herself seated. “I used to team up with DTO Anil Garg for such special nakas, but he got transferred just a day ago,” she said.
Daughter of senior cop SK Agnihotri, Commandant at In-service Training Centre, Kapurthala, she has also had to appear before the Speaker in the Vidhan Sabha after MLA Simarjit Singh Bains lodged a complaint against her over the challaning of his vehicle. She had even made son of AAP MP Harinder Singh Khalsa remove the red beacon during another such crackdown. The tough cop, with a beaming face, has not even spared a JMIC, an income tax commissioner, son of CIA inspector of Jagraon and a tehsildar during a similar swoop, where she usually ensures media presence in her support.
The cop’s visits to schools and colleges for traffic education also make her win over young hearts.
Dhruv too had impounded an Orbit bus at Dasuya last month when he saw it parked in a no-parking zone. It is the second time that the ASP had impounded a bus of Badals in the past six months.
As ACP (North) at Ludhiana, Dhruv Dahiya had tried to challan a High Court judge for alleged wrong parking in December last. The challan, however, was cancelled and he had got marching orders soon after. But the twosome maintain the same punch line, “We aim to convey it to masses that everyone is equal before law.”
