Mau: A station house officer (SHO) in Uttar Pradesh has been transferred after she allegedly stopped a young woman and her brother at a temple park in Mau district and advised her not to step out in public without a “guardian,” officials said on Monday.
The incident sparked a moral policing controversy after a video of the exchange surfaced on social media, prompting the local police to take note of the matter. The officer, identified as Manju Singh, was serving as the SHO of the mahila thana and was conducting an inspection as part of a women’s safety awareness drive at the time.
In the video, Singh is seen questioning a young man and two girls who had come to visit the Sheetla temple park from neighbouring Ghazipur district. Suspecting a personal relationship between them, she asked one of the girls for her father’s phone number and spoke to him to verify her identity.
Viral Video
What kind of Moral Policing is this @Uppolice ? Do not you have some better job to do?pic.twitter.com/mZAXBfuNLR
— NCMIndia Council For Men Affairs (@NCMIndiaa) December 15, 2025
The officer also questioned the young man accompanying her and initially refused to accept his claim that he was her brother or a family member. The video shows that after speaking to the father, it was confirmed that the two were siblings.
Despite this, Singh is heard advising the girl not to visit public places “without a guardian” and telling her father over the phone not to allow his children to go out unaccompanied. The remarks triggered sharp criticism online, with many users accusing the police of overstepping their authority and indulging in moral policing under the pretext of women’s safety.
As per the reports, additional Superintendent of Police Anup Kumar, who took note of the incident, said no offence had been committed but cautioned against officers offering unwarranted advice or acting beyond their mandate. He said some personnel tend to assume a “moral responsibility” and issue unsolicited instructions, stressing that even couples in public places cannot be stopped without valid grounds. “The police across the district will be sensitised. They should not act beyond their jurisdiction. A warning will be issued from my office,” Kumar said.
A police official said the brother is an adult, while the sister is a minor. They were accompanied by another girl, their cousin from Ghazipur, during the visit to the park.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: ZEE News
