355 SAP jawans surrender arms in protest

Patna,(BiharTimes): In all 355 Special Auxiliary Police personnel posted in East Champaran surrendered their arms at the district headquarters in Motihari on Saturday by protesting alleged menial chores they were compelled to do despite being raised as a force to counter Maoists.

It was after coming to the power of Nitish Kumar in 2005 that the SAP was raised from the ex-armymen as a unit to be deployed at forward police outposts in 13 of the worst affected Left extremist-hit districts of the state.

But they have repeatedly been charging the ASP (Operation) Sanjay Singh with using them for menial chores and demanded that they be removed from his command.

A group of SAP personnel also demonstrated before the office of SP Vinay Kumar in Motihari and shouted slogans against him. They said they were appointed to fight Naxals but are being used as servant of sahebs. They alleged that from the very beginning they were deployed in the work which compromised their dignity. “Whenever we protested we were threatened to be sacked,” one of them said.