Hyderabad: Shadow police on toes to keep tabs on politicos

Hyderabad: The shadow police is not a new concept with any police department all over the world. But the role of shadow police becomes vital especially during elections, though they are also active in other times such as cracking on drunk and drive cases, to crack eve-teasing cases etc. However, it is the shadow police that works real wonders for the police department in cracking of irregularities that occur during elections.

Shadow police are the officers who work in the intelligence department and special branch and they are always in civil uniform. They work under the command of Joint Commissioner of Special Branch, Tarun Joshi. As the GHMC elections are to be held very soon in the city of Hyderabad, the police department is on its toes to ensure that the elections are held in a smooth and peaceful manner without any drama.

An officer on condition of anonymity said that the police department has received instructions from the top brass that every officer shall be alert, especially the officers working in shadows because they are the ones who infiltrate any party like a party worker and provide the information to the department.

He noted, "The shadow cops are trained in such a way that the party workers or any other person will never identify that the person is working for the police department. They work as party activists and keep an eye on all party activities and if any discrepancies are found they will alert the respective officers of the jurisdiction." Also, the shadow police officers will keep an eye on the money transactions which happen during elections and if any party is indulging in distributing money to the voters then the police department will be alerted.

Apart from it, there are full chances that the political parties may use the rowdy sheeters to create disturbances during election time and their plans are foiled by detaining rowdy sheeters beforehand so that they do not create any disturbance, explained the officer. The entire staff of police department including those from intelligence wing are strictly asked by the higher-ups not to avail of any leave until the elections are over and results are declared.