Open Forum

New Delhi, 8 September 2008

Continuing Police Saga

A FORCE WITHOUT ACCOUNTABILITY

By Ashok Kapur IAS (Retd.)

A recent survey on the functioning of the police in the Capital of what is fondly claimed to be the world’s largest democracy, conducted by a respected national daily says it all. 95 per cent of the respondents, believe it or not, expressed total disapproval of the manner of functioning of the police force. It is the highest disapproval rating on a public issue as reported by the daily in recent memory. In context, it would not be unfair to assume that the balance five per cent were either loyal members of the police force themselves or their agents and apologists.

Police performance in the Capital, symptomatic of the rest of India has sunk to a new low. The invectives recently hurled quite liberally at the police in the national media would shame any organized group of officials, especially those who are supposed to be “public servants”. The litany of invectives includes “criminals in uniform”, “khaki hoodlums”, “a lawless force”, “as dreaded as the Nazi Gestapo”. Such vile and widespread abuse would have shocked the civilized conscience of any nation.       

Apparently, the civil society in India has become inured to the habitual abuse of authority by so-called guardians of law. The recent murder of an adolescent girl near the Capital itself, and the response of the police force of Noida is symptomatic of the deep malaise that afflicts the police force at all levels.

The simple facts of the case are that a young girl belonging to a respectable family is murdered brutally. The police promptly rush to the spot, suspect a foreign domestic servant , announce a reward and rush teams to a neighbouring nation to apprehend the culprit. A senior IPS official, the second highest in the State police hierarchy rushes to the spot of the crime. So far so good. Indeed very commendable, and the police themselves deserving of a reward.

Before one rushes to judgment, it is a shameful conduct even by the standards of Indian police. As events begin to unravel, facts surface. The performance of the police force is found to be abysmal. The senior police officer who rushes to the spot does not even examine the crime scene. He promptly summons the local media, and announces with some fanfare that the young girl was of doubtful character and involved with the domestic help. He makes a grand appearance and scoots. A more cavalier, if not superficial conduct on the part of such a senior officer is difficult to imagine.

Several important issues arise, touching the overall functioning of the police. The force has become largely dysfunctional. It is accountable to no one. Its methods are unbelievably loose, whether deliberately or otherwise. Senior police officers who are supposed to professionally supervise serious offences like rape and murder are simply not discharging their duty properly.

Primers on police functioning spell out the first rule of criminal investigation. That the crime scene should be promptly scrutinized and thoroughly studied, to gather clues and collect all incriminating evidence. This glaring omission is shocking in the instant case. He merely rushes to the media, a tendency all too common. As the officer concerned is a member of All India Service, appearing before the media was largely a case of avoidable self projection. Besides, and which is more serious, a violation of the Conduct Rules. Unauthorised communication with members of the mass media on the part of All India Services officers is expressly discouraged.

Secondly, to cast aspersion on a deceased person without even the formal investigation being complete, was not only in utter bad taste but outright defamatory. Such insinuations are punishable under the penal code of the nation. Defamation is an offence even against the family or the relatives of a deceased person.

Another important issue arises in context, again symptomatic of the malfunctioning of the force. It is without any check or accountability. The home departments of the State government manned by civil servants who are trained and experienced magistrates, and which are the controlling authority of the police force, are largely dysfunctional, in a manner of speaking. These rarely if ever enforce any accountability. Apologists for the police force will no doubt roll out the litany of stock alibis-political and bureaucratic interference, under armed and under staffed force etc.. It would be educative for the civil society to know the alibi in the present case.

The incident is not an isolated case of slipshod investigation. It is increasingly becoming a pattern. The success rate of conviction in serious offences under the penal code is in single digits. Hardly a day passes when the independent criminal courts of law do not adversely comment on the perfunctory investigation by the police all over India. According to distinguished former Chief Justice of India, Dr. A.S. Anand: “A very large number of acquittals are also on account of faulty, non-scientific and disoriented investigation.”

Secondly, police officers at the level of S.P.s and D.C.P.s are field officers. State Manuals all over the country prescribe a certain minimum number of serious crimes that should be personally investigated and supervised by these officers. For this reason, the Police Commission had suggested that they should be allotted jeeps, to make them more professional and efficient. Instead, the field officers have allotted to themselves executive vehicles, and largely lead executive lifestyles. Investigation has, therefore, been conveniently abdicated, by and large to junior inspectors and sub-inspectors, leading to the present deep-rooted malaise of poor conviction rate and widespread infringement of laws. As another former Chief Justice of India pertinently put it, it is not the severity of punishment but its certainty that deters crime.

That the senior officers have largely abdicated investigation to junior inspectors, is a perception shared by even foreign scholars who have studied the working of Indian police. David Bayley, the Princeton University scholar made a most comprehensive study of the police in India in the late sixties, both among Indian and foreign experts. “Supervision of criminal investigation by superior police officers is far from adequate……… they turn a blind eye , not excluding I.P.S., to improprieties”. The position today is worse.

In sum, the situation almost 60 years after independence is grim. The recent Constitutional Review Commission headed by a former Chief Justice of India has reminded the Government that “control of the police” is one of the basic ingredients of the rule of law, now a basic feature of the Constitution. Evidently to no avail. ---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)