Police crime

    It is fascinating to watch a movie where a hero plays a bad cop and show off to the world how he thrives. But in real life, it is a disaster if police are dirty minded. It is not correct to say every cop behaves in the same way, but nonetheless even one is enough to tarnish the image of police in the eyes of the public.

    Police are civil servants. Their job legally is to maintain law and order but as a human they need to act humanely. Being a public servant is not an easy job. Power brings responsibility and the job has to be  carried on with values such as sympathy, empathy and compassion for the general public. The police should be a role model of the society endowed with values and principles.

    The training of the police along with physical fitness must embed with each individual emotional intelligence and the value of a human being. The recent horrific event of custodial death is a very serious event where the police misuses the power bestowed and harms the individual. What will be the plight of public confidence in police due to such events? Why do the police act the way they do when they join the task force? Is there a systemic problem? Does the brutality of the police have something to do with colonial era throwback where people were supposed to fear the police? During colonial era, the police were trained to think of people as criminals and needed to keep them under control with fear. Where does this kind of attitude match in this independent country?

    Supreme Court in many a judgements like DK Basu vs West Bengal have made it clear that Right to life and Right to know the reason for arrest are fundamental rights of an individual. An individual arrested has to be produced before a magistrate within 24 hours unless it is a preventive detention. Forced evidence through torture cannot be shown as proof for conviction in courts. All these provisions seem to be on paper and the ground reality is radically different. The IPC and CrPC sections are being misused by the police for their vested interests. The public has to feel safe around a police officer, but instead fear reigns in the public at large.

    Torture is the worst form of human rights violation. It involves violence first at the level of the mind and then migrates into physical action. The act of thinking about torture itself is a self degrading phenomena. Torture has been used by the police many a times to sanctify their own egocentric agenda. Many of the terrorists are not deported to India for conviction because of torture. India is not a signatory to United Nations convention against torture. There is a long due of police reforms pending in the country.

    If the judiciary takes up, then it becomes judicial over reach or judicial activism. In such a case who should question the atrocities of the institutions designed to protect the public? The legislature must take the judgements in a positive mindset and make legislations for the country to be governed more humanely.