Allahabad High Court Again Seeks UP DGP's Personal Affidavit To Curtail Cases Of Fake Lottery Offers, Phone Call Scams, Etc

The Allahabad High Court has once again sought the personal affidavit of the State's Director General of Police over curtailing the activities of cheats who constantly call up citizens with the fake offers of lotteries and prizes in order to rob them of their hard-earned money.

The Bench of Justice J. J. Munir expressed its displeasure over an affidavit filed by the DGP pursuant to Court's order issued on June 30, 2021. In that very order, the Court had issued the following order:

"The Director General of Police, U.P., Lucknow shall take immediate steps to trace out this widespread racket of hardened criminals, who are cunning cheats, calling up innocent citizens with alluring offers about extension of loans or lucky draws that they have won or rewards relating to TV shows, that have gone in their favour, so as to extract hard earned money from their pockets in these trying times. The Director General of Police, U.P., Lucknow shall immediately issue circulars to the District Police Heads to come down heavily on such cheats and frauds and bring them to book."

Now, on March 2, 2022, the Court had asked the Director-General of Police, U.P. Lucknow to file his personal affidavit indicating what steps have been taken to comply with the order above-mentioned order.

Pursuant to this, a personal affidavit was filed on March 9, 2022, by Mukul Goel, Director General of Police, Uttar Pradesh, however, the Court noted that he had not properly complied with the orders of the Court.

Significantly, the Court remarked that the reading of the personal affidavit filed by the Director-General of Police showed as if it were a report submitted to some government agency or an academic body about steps taken generally regarding the law and order problem.

"The Director-General of Police does not say even a word about what he had done in compliance with the orders of this Court dated 30.06.2021, in that, that there is no reference to that order; secondly there is no mention of any circular being issued by the Director-General of Police to the District Superintendents of Police in compliance with this Court's order dated 30.06.2021; and lastly, there are no particulars with any material mentioned about what the Director-General of Police has done to strongly curtail the activities of cheats who constantly call up citizens with a fake offer of lotteries and prizes in order to rob them of their hard-earned money," the Court further added.

With this, the court has now asked the DGP to file the requisite personal affidavit within a week and in all events by 28.04.2022. The case has been listed for further hearing on April 28, 2022.

Case Title - Kuldeep v. State of U.P

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