Gandhinagar, Jan 22 (IANS): Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Friday announced that the Rapid Response (RR) Cell of the state police will be abolished.

Active since 1995, the RR Cell's chief task was to keep a tab on the functionings of organised crime in the state.

"We have decided to abolish the RR cell of the police department from today. This decision has been taken because in a new era of technology and mobility, there's no requirement for such a set-up," Rupani said.

In response to a query, Minister of State for Home (MoS) Pradipsinh Jadeja said: "The decision to abolish RR Cell is unrelated to the recent incident in which Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) had nabbed an RR Cell Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) for receiving a Rs 50 lakh bribe."

The ASI, Prakashsinh Raol, was caught red handed by the ACB while accepting the bribe at an eatery in Vidyanagar, Anand, on December 31, 2020.

According to the police sources, the working of the RR Cell was to monitor the suspected illegal activities in the state.

It was functional at the seven range divisions of the state.

But according to sources, the main objective was scarcely used, whereas it was more of a use to settle personal scores amongst police personnel and for corruption.

"Now we will be giving more powers to the District Superintendent (SP) so that they can perform better," the Chief Minister added.