The Yogi Adityanath government has revived the police’s anti-Romeo squad, which was first launched in April 2017 and unofficially disbanded within a few months on the back of allegations that cops were victimising couples in the name of cracking down on harassment of women and molesters.

Teams from the anti-Romeo squad will be deployed near schools and colleges and at important crossings across Uttar Pradesh for a period of 100 days from Monday, as of now.

“We have re-energised the squad on the direction of the government. There will be teams near all schools, colleges and crossroads to prevent harassment of women. It is a 100-day drive in this phase,” said Aparna R. Kaushik, deputy commissioner of police of Lucknow central.

Deepak Kumar, deputy inspector-general of police of Aligarh, said: “The drive is meant for confidence building among women. We want them to move around without fear. They should be confident enough to go home even if they alight at railway or bus stations at midnight.”

“The teams from the squad will be alert round the clock and take action as soon as they come to know about any such incident (of harassment),” he added.

The squad had been rendered defunct when some policemen were found harassing couples. There were instances of policemen manhandling even fathers accompanying their daughters, without verifying their identity. In Lucknow, a squad officer had been accused of harassing a woman when she approached him with a complaint of stalking.

An Apple executive was shot dead by a squad constable in 2020. Vivek Tiwari was going to drop a woman colleague to her home at night when constable Prashant Chaudhary allegedly intercepted and killed him.

A senior police officer said on the condition of anonymity that the squad had been “very popular among women but some policemen didn’t adhere to rules”.

“However, this time senior officers have been asked to monitor its working during the 100-day drive. We will keep reviewing the squad’s activities at regular intervals.”

Samajwadi Party president and former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav had suggested that the government change the name of the squad. He had pointed out that Romeo was not a molester. However, the proposal had not found favour with the government.