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DGP paints true face of Punjab
Police
WSN News
 CHANDIGARH:
Here are the latest discoveries about Punjab Police:
?? The police is registering false cases in Punjab.
?? People were being arrested and prosecuted illegally.
?? Cases are regularly registered under political influence.
?? Money power is dictating the police to intimidate people.
?? Cases against antisocial elements or guilty persons are not being
registered.
?? No effort is being made to ensure justice for the aggrieved
No, these are not allegations by a particularly piqued columnist of
the Amritsar Times, neither is this a wail by any human rights
group. This is what Punjab’s Cop Number One, the Director-General of
Police S S Virk has put down in black and white. And this is not a
piece of controversial secret document. This is the DGP’s letter to
all the district police chiefs of Punjab.
So now, it is official. This is the real true face of the Punjab
Police. For a force which tasted blood during the years of so-called
terrorism in Punjab, a force which made it a habit to breach the
proprieties of law and the technicalities like justice and logic,
this was a path of natural progress. All the cries of human rights
groups ran into a wall of apathy. Now you have a DGP who too seems
helpless.
In the letter now being bandied about all across the media, the DGP
has virtually convicted his force of being a bunch of criminals.
By his own admission, Mr Virk has said in the letter that CM
Amarinder Singh and Chief Secretary Mr K.R. Lakhanpal had pointed
out specific shortcomings in the police and that their information
was based on the inputs received from the ground level. The SSPs
have been asked to rectify the shortcomings immediately by the DGP,
of course optimism taking over a sense of reality.
What does a police force exist for? Here is what the DGP tells us
what his men have been upto for a few years now. “The police was
registering false cases. Cases are registered under political
influence or money power in order to intimidate people on the basis
of their political alignments,” the DGP said in his twopage letter.
And if the average citizen of the state thought that the police was
oppressive, this is the DGP’s opinion. on the matter: “Cases against
antisocial elements or guilty persons are not registered under some
political or extraneous considerations and no effort is made to give
justice to the aggrieved persons. Also proper attention was not
being paid to people who come to police stations with genuine
grievances”.
And of course the DGP clearly thinks that the matters can be
rectified by dashing off a few letters to senior police officials.
So far of course he has just written one, but more could be in the
offing.
Read his solution to the messedup- beyond-all-hope situation:
“All SSPs should resist pressure from politicians to register a
false case against anybody. Any such pressures by any politician
should be brought to the notice of the DGP. Avoid calling women or
old people to the police stations unless they were directly involved
in a crime.”
And to whom is this suggestion being made? To the district police
chiefs and the superintendents of police, the very bunch which has
displayed a remarkable ability to tilt at the windmills the moment a
politician gets a whip to crack.
It is of course gratifying to know that the DGP of Punjab knows that
his men register false cases against innocent people and allow
criminals to go scot-free under the influence of politicians. The
whole world knew this fact but since policemen went about this shady
practice without check, someday a lame excuse might have popped up
that the top brass was just not plugged in.
But being in the know is only a small part of the job of the police
head. To rectify matters, he will have to go way beyond merely
putting his pen to paper.
The opposition Akali Dal president Prakash Singh Badal was quick to
pipe up when the media brought to light the self-convicting letter
of the DGP, saying it proved that the state police has been rendered
corrupt under Amarinder Singh government.
If the idea was that the state police was a force married to utter
professionalism and highest standards of ethical behavior and
respect for law under the erstwhile Badal government, surely the
ghost-writer press release formulators have made a strong attempt to
convince the people. Only they would need all the salt the Indian
Ocean can yield. After all, you can’t take something like that with
just a pinch.
6 September 2006
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