Need to free cops from clutches of politicians
Inspector Nageswara Rao, former Station House Officer of the Marredpally police station in Hyderabad, was dismissed from service earlier this month on charges of abducting a woman and raping her at gunpoint. He was known to have a “criminal bent of mind.” Police Commissioner CV Anand wasted no time in taking action following a complaint from the victim and her husband, whom Rao had allegedly threatened to kill.
In another instance, policemen, led by an inspector, flogged four men of a particular community, holding them against an electric pole, after they were apprehended for allegedly throwing stones at the crowd that had gathered for a garba event at Undhela village of Kheda district in Gujarat on October 3. A video clip of the incident went viral on social media, drawing all-round condemnation. An inquiry has been ordered into the incident by the sub-divisional police officer of the area. Meanwhile, the Minority Coordination Committee has demanded an inquiry by a Gujarat High Court judge.
A young student, who was allegedly abducted from Ambedkar Nagar in UP, taken to Lucknow and gangraped by two youths, died by suicide on October 5 as ‘no action was taken against the accused by the police’ despite the victim’s father approaching the district Superintendent of Police. The victim had identified one of the rapists, yet he was roaming free.
It is a widespread notion that cops are generally corrupt. Honest policemen, who do not abide by the unlawful diktats of the political leadership, often face hardships by way of transfers and being appointed to posts that would hardly be considered important enough.
The recent dismissal of the inspector in Hyderabad must serve as a lesson to other policemen who think that they are there to enforce (or break) the law and not abide by the law. It goes to the credit of the Police Commissioner that he got 55 police personnel of Telangana dismissed or removed or compulsorily retired for various offences and misuse of power.
In the first eight months of 2020, as many as 22 policemen, including a sub-inspector and an inspector in Pune, were dismissed for various infractions after departmental inquiries were conducted against them.
More recently, the Jammu & Kashmir administration compulsorily retired 36 of its police personnel on grounds of doubtful integrity, apart from various acts of misdemeanour like prolonged absence from duty, corruption and underperformance, and one more recently for anti-national activities.
While all this penal action against the policemen was taken after adopting departmental procedures, several others were tried under criminal laws. According to the NCRB data of 2021, only 15 police personnel were convicted in the 225 cases in which the trial was completed; the rest were acquitted. Three of those convicted were from Madhya Pradesh, while two each were from Kerala, Chhattisgarh, J&K and Telangana and one each from Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Punjab and Tamil Nadu. Overall, over 6,000 cases were registered against police personnel last year.
The abysmally low conviction rate can be attributed to the fact that witnesses are reluctant to testify against policemen, irrespective of their rank in the hierarchy. Threats to complainants and witnesses by recalcitrant policemen are enough to deter them from appearing in the courts or even testifying against them.
The fact that the investigation in all cases registered against the policemen is done by their own colleagues weighs in their favour as most investigating officers would choose to carry out the investigation in a shoddy manner so as to weaken the case rather than to draw the ire of their erring colleagues.
The reasons for cops’ brutality and their reluctance to maintain discipline are far too many. As has often been voiced by many police officers, political patronage to police personnel has been an impediment to enforcing discipline among them. When politicians arrogate to themselves the power to transfer cops, senior officers are rendered impuissant to bridle the erring police personnel. A good number of politicians with a criminal background rule the roost, while senior police officers helplessly watch their subordinates calling the shots. Very few senior officers have the spine to oppose their political bosses and most choose to flow with the tide.
According to a September 2020 report, 2,556 MLAs/MPs from 22 states had criminal records, as stated by amicus curiae Vijay Hansaria in the Supreme Court. The figure has shot up to over 4,900, as submitted by him in the apex court recently.
With such a huge number of politicians with criminal records governing the country, they would not, for obvious reasons, let go of their stranglehold over the police force for their own safety and also to continue with their criminal activities with impunity. It is mostly only when the media highlights crimes committed by politicians that the police come into action and arrest the culprits.
In the recent incident at Kheda, Gujarat Home Minister Harsh Sanghavi is reported to have extolled the police action of flogging the Muslim men publicly, thereby sending out a clear message that they would be protected, irrespective of the outcome of the inquiry report submitted by the Deputy Superintendent of Police deputed to look into the matter. Since it has drawn intense media attention, the errant policemen may, at the most, be transferred. As the video clip of the incident had gone viral, it should not have taken more than a day or two to identify the policemen and take penal action against them. Public memory being short, it may not be surprising if the culprits go scot-free.
Despite the apex court’s directions to carry out reforms in the police setup to set it free from the clutches of politicians, very little seems to have been done to ameliorate the situation. It is high time the SC questioned the powers that be about the reasons for the prolonged delay in the implementation of its recommendations.
