Haryana government’s new STF to be functional by January-end

GURGAON: The reconstituted special task force (STF), which is headed by IG Saurabh Singh and based out of the city, will be functional by this month-end, sources said. The special task force was disbanded around seven years ago by the then Congress government after the police unit faced extortion charges.
While the main office will be in Bhondsi, additional offices have been set up in the traffic tower as well while small units will be in Rohtak, Hisar, Karnal, Ambala and Rewari.The reason for setting up the STF in Gurgaon is its proximity to Delhi which is home to several central investigative agencies, said officials.
The previous STF was disbanded in March 2010 by then CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress government, after 10 of its members, including an additional SP, were arrested on charges of extortion in 2010. They were caught on camera extorting money from a jeweller in Panipat. “The new STF has been reconstituted with the notified standard operating procedure (SOP) and its every action will be properly documented. Our focus will be drug dealers, illegal weapons suppliers and inter-state criminal gangs. The officers of the new STF have been picked on the basis of their service records and competence,” said additional director general of police (headquarters) PK Aggarwal.
“The force will be functional by the third or fourth week of this month,” he said. Apart from IG Saurabh Singh, STF will have officers of the rank of SPs, DSPs and inspectors. B Satheesh Balan, SP of Jhajjar, has been given additional charge of SP, STF-Gurgaon, while Rahul Dev has been appointed as the force’s DSP. Sources said many of those appointed STF members have already reached Gurgaon and holding daily meetings, sources said. However, when contacted, Balan said that the new STF would take a minimum of six months to get in full shape. “Two SP-rank officers, including me, have been deployed with STF. To start with, the focus of STF will be nearby areas of NCR because organized crimes, including narcotics, extortion and gangwar, are more from other areas than it is in the entire state. We got more than 60 police personnel, some vehicles and have already started working on an secret operation,” Balan added.