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| Change system to make policing people-friendly | | |
by Raahul Gul
Although the rampant ‘corruption’ among public servants in general and the police in particular is all too well-known, a recent expose of a conspiracy by some officials of the Delhi Police to frame a citizen indicates the abysmal depth to which the rot has spread in the ‘steel frame’ of our bureaucracy.
The target was a witness of a woman’s molestation by an inspector, who apparently insisted on giving his testimony despite dire threats. So, a group of policemen, including the molestor-cop, 2 SHOs and 2 sub-inspectors allegedly decided to ‘fix’ him on false rape charges with the help of a couple of lawyers and a woman who played the role of a rape victim.
The nightmare of the witness began with the proverbial midnight knock on his door by a police team, which proceeded to thrash him in front of his family and the entire neighbourhood before hauling him away. The charges: Raping a woman in his car.
A woman was paid to have intercourse with someone whose blood group matched that of the witness, and also contact a lawyer, a co-conspirator, at a district crime court, who planted more ‘evidence’ on her.
The police then planted ‘evidence’ of rape in the car of the witness, who was even asked to provide a semen sample in the police station. He went on to spend 52 harrowing days in jail, and was eventually acquitted only on the basis of a DNA test.
Although a court ordered an investigation against six police officials in the case on August 11, the fact of the matter is that it may just be the tip of an iceberg.
Indeed, police officials are actually empowered by the law of the land to question or detain anyone anytime on the pretext of just about anything. Those unfortunate enough to land in custody are often subjected to third-degree torture which can be traumatic enough to scar people for life, physically as well as mentally. Cases of custodial death are not unknown, with people simply being beaten to death. Some prefer to commit suicide.
The Indian Penal Code (IPC), which defines crime and punishment, is based on British criminal law and came into force in 1862, while the machinery for prevention and punishment through the criminal court system is contained in the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), which dates back to 1898. Even the Police Act came into force in 1861.
All these had one overriding assumption: the subjugation of ‘natives’ by the enforcing British officers. So, when section 41 of the CrPC grants powers to a police officer to arrest anyone without a warrant from a magistrate, the assumption was that the ‘officer’ would be British and the arrested person an Indian.
Likewise, sections 129-131 (maintenance of public order and tranquility, using force if necessary), sections 149-153 (the preventive powers of the police) or section 156 (police investigation) all grant sweeping discretionary powers to the police, thanks to phrases like ‘reasonably complaint’, ‘credible information’, and ‘reasonable suspicion’.
Nowadays, when only money matters, the system encourages abuse of official position and rampant corruption. A survey found that over 90 cent of people found the police untrustworthy, corrupt and brutal.
It is high time that the penal and criminal procedure codes are rewritten. Unfortunately, our members of Parliament nowadays are too busy squabbling among themselves, and the average politician too engrossed in making money, to care about things such as true freedom from the British by changing the system they put in place.
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