Agra: The Uttar Pradesh police, which is saddled by rising cases of crime against women and allegations of deteriorating law and order in the state, now has an enormous task up its sleeve. The wife of former Cabinet minister in the Narendra Modi cabinet Ram Shankar Katheria has asked the police to take urgent steps to locate ‘Kalu’ her pet Labrador which has been missing for the past three days.
Among her demands is deployment of police force to locate her dog and setting up of a special unit for the high-profile task.
Katheria has two dogs – both Labradors – one white and the other black. As the name suggests, Kalu is the black Labrador who is missing since Tuesday. Katheria, former Minister of State for Human Resource Development, is a Lok Sabha MP from Agra.
According to Katheria’s wife Mridula, an intense search for her beloved pet did not throw any positive results, forcing her to approach the police for help. According to a report in Dainik Bhaskar, Mridula approached the city’s Hari Parvat police station along with her supporters and handed over a written complaint to City SP Sushil Kumar Ghule.
Mridula demanded that the SP file a missing report of the dog and also sought deployment of force to recover Kalu. The minister’s wife also sought a separate unit to be formed to locate her beloved missing pet.
She insists she is not seeking any special favours from the police.
“If they can do it for Azam Khan’s buffaloes, why not my dog,” she said. Notably, the Uttar Pradesh police has earned the distinction of launching a massive hunt for the Samajwadi Party leader’s missing buffaloes a few years ago.
Meanwhile, the entire family is upset with Kalu’s disappearance. He was like a family to them. Even the minister, who is currently out of town, is learnt to be extremely worried over the dog having gone missing amid such tight security.
According to sources close to the minister, the incident is being viewed as a major lapse of security. Law and order, as it happens, is the exclusive premise of the state government.
Considering the seriousness of the matter, it should not come as a surprise if this too is dubbed as a political conspiracy ahead of Assembly elections in the state scheduled for 2017.
