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| Would 'deliberate leaks' obfuscate truth? | | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Aug 7: The arrest of two selection grade constables posted at special operations group (SOG) Sopore camp in connection with the custodial killing of Nazim Rashid Shalla has finally set the investigating ball rolling. It can be hoped with a reasonable measure of anticipation that the noose is ultimately going to tighten around the neck of those who have little regard for propriety and justice as they get drunk with unbridled power.
The latest in this series of bizarre and horrible drama is the obvious 'leak' about the sms sent by the then Sopore superintendent of police to the police chief regarding the so-called confession of the youth that he was involved in the murders of Mohammad Ashraf Dar and Jana Mir in the town both of whom were killed by unknown gunmen. The 'deliberate leak' also indicated that the police have the confessional statement on record which the youth made prior to falling a victim to the torture of his interrogators.
The police need not be reminded that a confession made by anybody during custody which is not recorded in the presence of a magistrate is not even worth the paper on which it has been made. People confessing to a crime while in police custody have often made statements which they denied subsequently in the court of law. It was precisely to address this lacuna in investigative procedure that police in the country shifted to the legally safer and valid procedure of having confessional or other statements made by persons in custody recorded in the presence of magistrates.
Such statements are admissible as evidence in a court of law during criminal trials and their rebuttal by the persons who made them in custody is also protected by law. If the purpose of the 'deliberate leak' had been to suggest that the slain youth had been killed because he was involved in gunmen shootouts, the purpose has been totally defeated. If the purpose had been to protect the personnel in charge at the SOG camp by virtue of the fact that the slain youth had been an over ground operative of the subversives, then again the purpose has been defeated.
However, heinous the crime of a person in custody might turn out to be because of investigating process or because of the personal confession of the accused; the law of the land does not allow extra judicial murder. No power in the country, not the President, the Prime Minister, the Parliament, the Governor, the Chief Minister or anybody else has the power to order or condone a custodial killing. That must be clearly understood by the men in uniform.
Nobody is doing any service to the country if he becomes a hip shooter and goes on a killing spree with the law book conveniently forgotten at home.
That can only happen in a Bollywood movie. This country has had enough 'Chulbul Pandas' and some of them are already rotting in the state central jail or in other states of the country. India does not need any encounter specialists, please. The country cannot be criminalized as a matter of state policy. That is not admissible unless we want India to be ruled by vigilantes and Robin Hoods. Kangaroo courts are not the answer to the militant outbreak in the state.
Having said that, it must be said in all fairness that those accused of the custodial killing also have legal rights and those rights must be protected. Nobody should predetermine the plight of the SOG personnel after they are booked for the crime. They have the right to their legal defence and nobody must deny them that right. Yes, the state cannot be seen defending murders. It has to be state versus the killers. That is a given. But, the same people who took law into their own hands to commit the most heinous murder at Sopore stll have the right to their self-defence. Nobody in judiciary should be influenced because of the legitimate public outcry over the incident.
And yet, it can be said without any fear of rebuttal that the law will finally punish the guilty and those trying to obfuscate the investigative process through 'deliberate leaks' are only bringing the hound closer to their door. Men in uniform should understand it better, hopefully they do. |
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