Criminal activities among students will be dealt with seriously: Odisha DGP

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Director General of Police (DGP) R.P. Sharma on Tuesday said criminal activities among students in educational institutions will be dealt with seriously.

The DGP has issued an advisory for the police, educational institutions and parents to deal with the situation.

“Instances of students pursuing studies in different educational institutions, indulging themselves in various criminal/anti-social activities like rape, murder, criminal assault, unlawful activities, eve-teasing, molestation, kidnapping for ransom, theft, drug addiction etc have come to the notice,” said the guidelines.

Those apart, there has been an increasing trend of criminal activities due to the advancement of technology within the cyberspace like stalking, hacking, sex-tortion, it added.

In order to check such nefarious habits among young students, Sharma instructed all Superintendents of Police in the state including DCPs of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack to take special measure on the issue.

Similarly, DGP has suggested a set of advisories for the managers of educational institutions as well as parents of the students in order to prevent these unhealthy practices.

The magnitude of such crimes among students have been increasing manifold day by day which has been a major concern for college authorities as well as parents in particular, and police in general, confessed DGP Sharma.

There is an urgent need to undertake suitable measures to deal with this sensitive problem and endeavour to make all the educational institution a crime-free zone, said DGP.

Sharma asked the police for regular patrolling in and around the college premises by deploying PCR Vans.

It also asked to take actions to stop the sale of drug, tobacco and contraband products in shops near and around the educational institutions.

Special drive under COTPA & JJ Act should be conducted to remove all tobacco shops near educational institutions in co-operation with revenue authority/local municipality authority/police and to make the institution a tobacco-free zone.

Police should take immediate steps against outsiders and ex-students as per law, who create anti-social activities within the campus. Police should deploy plain cloth personnel to detect outsiders committing antisocial activities and conduct raids to detect anti-social elements, who pass lewd comments on female students and also resorting to eve teasing.

Police should remain in regular touch with college authorities and students to impart orientation programme on crime related issues, it said.

During such interaction police should sensitize and try to impress upon the students the legal consequences of breaking or taking law on to their hands, and its future adverse impact on their academic and professional career.

They should be cautioned that during police verification if anything adverse found, the concerned person will be debarred from any employment in both public and private organizations.