Top priority to protection of women & children, human rights: DGP

Anantapur: DGP Dwaraka Tirumala Rao on Tuesday refused to comment on Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan's outburst on the police.

He admitted that certain mistakes had occurred during the past 5 years in the police department. "We are now on the job of correcting the wrongs of the past in the police department,” he said.

The DGP was here along with the Home Minister to participate in the passing out parade of DSPs.

Tirumala Rao refused to comment on Pawan’s observations but he asserted that there will be no compromise on the law and order front. “Our policy is to punish the law-breakers and save the innocent citizens. We are committed to rule of law and the Constitution. We will not succumb to political pressures,” he said.

During the tenure of the previous government, police failed to discharge their duties properly, he said. The police did not respond correctly when an attack took place on a political party office. The police failed to register case against the offenders in the name of right to freedom of speech. Responding to opposition criticism on the justification of acting on an incident that took place 3 years ago, the DGP said that the police can act even after 30 years. Citing an incident in Kerala State, Tirumala Rao said an IPS officer had been suspended 20 years after an incident occurred.

He pointed out that the previous government failed to make use of fingerprint technology to detect the accused. He said protection of women and children and human rights is our priority. He said that an inquiry is on against the erstwhile IG Sanjay. The DGP said that despite the availability of fingerprint technology, it was not used by the previous government.