Gateway of criminal justice

It is widely believed that God incarnates to rescue society whenever evil forces rule it. Whether it happens or not, when rule of law is sidestepped, it is at least the Supreme Court that comes to the rescue of people and democracy in India, like in its recent order in the Unnao case of UP. However, if at all it can redeem the Criminal Justice System in the entire country it would acquire the status next to God. Since a fort is only as strong as it's gate-keeping, as a first step, SC needs to set the gateway of the CJS, the police, right; it is the most used and abused organisation by the lawmakers and the powerful.

In the past, it was the Supreme Court that had protected our Constitution from being tampered with through the Kesavananda Bharati case, etc. It was only because of it that 16 culprit policemen involved in the Hashimpura case, in which 42 Muslims in UP were killed in an encounter, were convicted by Delhi High Court. Similarly, through some of its recent orders, the Apex Court has raised the bar of people's expectations. It has reversed its own verdict on six death-row prisoners in a Maharashtra case, and also provided relief to over a million forest-dwellers in Gujarat. When the Yogi government, disdaining the legal procedures, got a journalist, Prashant Kanojia, arrested, the SC ordered his release, observing that the arrest was an even greater affront to democratic principles of freedom of speech and expression than some person forwarding a social media message lampooning the CM.

Now, through their assertive order in Unnao car-truck collision incident involving a teenage rape survivor, the Supreme Court made their presence strongly felt. They ordered the CBI to complete the probe in seven days, and also transferred four cases linked to her rape to Delhi and set the time limit for completion of the trial. They took cognisance of her letter, written twenty days prior to the collision incident, mentioning about the grave threats received from the gang of the jailed rape-accused MLA, Kuldeep Sengar, to withdraw her complaint of rape. The collision is the latest in the series of incidents – her gang-rape, the murder of her father by the police along with the gang, disappearing of a witness, etc. Since the tentacles of the accused appear to have even reached the SC, it is also being probed why there was a delay in bringing the letter to the notice of the CJI. The tenor of proceedings in the Court so rattled the BJP that it promptly expelled the MLA from the party, and quick arrangements were made for air-lifting her to Delhi for treatment, after a year-long saga of police callousness, and administrative neglect and bullying by him.

However, a pertinent question arises whether sporadic actions of the SC are adequate when governments care a little for the procedures of law and people too are violating the law with impunity. In UP alone, there are several traumatic incidents. The recent massacre of tribal people by a private army of the village headman in Sonbhadra, countless incidents of mob-lynching of Muslims and Dalits by cow-vigilantes, shooting down an SHO by a rabid mob of religious bigots for being impartial in investigations in a case against cow-vigilantes, assaulting, pulling the beard of a Mulla and making him chant 'Jai Shri Ram,' setting on fire a female Home Guard and a female BDC officer, etc., serve as reminders of the countless number of incidents that symbolise the contempt for law. Further, UP alone accounts for over 6,000 rapes/attempted rapes out of the 10,000 such cases in the country. Apathy for life of humans is evident in the thousands of encounter killings by police, mostly of Muslims. SC needs to step in to order a judicial enquiry into all such encounters to ensure that reformation of criminals becomes the goal of the CJS since Yogi is in a state of yogic bliss.

Across the country, women feel insecure; there are several sexual assaults on women and minors. Days after a special court for POCSO cases at Warangal pronounced death sentence for a man involved in the rape and murder of a nine-month-old baby girl, another shocking incident of child rape came to light in Vikarabad district. There is a chilling incident of the beheading of a three-year-old girl in Jharkhand after she was kidnapped from a railway platform and raped. In the same state, Tabrez Ansari was allegedly tied to a pole, forced to chant 'Jai Shri Ram' and 'Jai Hanuman', and thrashed to death by the mob. However, Union Minister Naqvi simply tells the nation not to politicise such lynching. Since, shamefully, such deeds are never condemned by the top leaders and such organisations are not banned, SC needs to intervene.

Gujarat is no better. The encounter-murder of Sohrabuddin and his wife surfaced only when a drunken policeman blurted out some crucial information. He was kidnapped along with his wife and killed by police only because he, allegedly, carried secrets of politically powerful people of Gujarat. When undue and interminable litigations were delaying investigations, it was the SC that ordered the CBI to take it up, and they charged Amit Shah along with others hitherto protected. It is another matter that subsequently one judge was transferred and another judge (Lohya) died under suspicious circumstances. Voices raised to investigate his suspicious death were quelled. The third judge completed the trial and discharged/acquitted everyone, primarily because the witnesses turned hostile. People expect that the dead would get justice at the hands of the Supreme Court at least.

Gujarat is another state where police were given a free hand to conduct encounters against Muslims, and witnesses were intimidated. People are so scared that even after Justice Bedi, who was appointed by the Supreme Court to find the truth, finds that three of the victims died in 'cold blooded murders' by police, they are not expecting any justice after watching the trial proceedings in Sohrabuddin's case. Incidents are too many to count. The dumped police officers, Vanzara and Sanjeev Bhatt, are standing witnesses for the saga of encounters ordered by the duo of Modi and Shah. Don't these actions impinge on the safety and liberty of individuals, and need the intervention of the Apex Court for ordering a judicial enquiry?

It is only to curb such impudent actions of police that the Indian Constitution, substantive and procedural laws, and police regulations provide for several safeguards, circumscribing their powers in arrest and use of force. Yet, there are frequent infringements, either on their own or at the behest of political authority. Incidents of illegal confessions, arbitrary arrests, denials of legal rights and legal advice to arrested persons, and inhuman treatment are countless. Bhagalpur blindings in the past, the case of Nambi Narayan, ex-scientist of ISRO, Ryan School murder case, etc., are representative of this pan-Indian phenomenon. Supreme Court itself said, police gore Human Rights to death. Since the governments themselves encourage such a state of affairs, is it not the time for the SC to step in?

While a police station is still an unwelcome place for the common man, the Supreme-Court-ordered police reforms continue to be a mirage. There is only shambolic compliance of their directives for the creation of State Security Commissions and Police Complaints Authorities. And the creation of separate wings of police for investigation, and law and order and prevention of crime is only on paper to hoodwink the Apex Court. The SHO still continues to be in charge of both the wings. As such investigation is a time-consuming battle of wits. When the time of officers drawn from the investigation wing is consumed by law and order, and VVIP duties, where do they find the time-space for investigations? It is time for the SC to ensure compliance of its orders through real physical separation of the staff, space and SHOs. Like the anti-corruption bureaus, there should also be separate districts and hierarchy up to the level of DGP for these two different fields of work. It would help them in specialising and innovating in their respective areas.

At the same time, a proper monitoring system, like an empowered Administrative Reforms Unit (ARU), should be put in place for doing a periodic review of the functioning of both these police stations, and also other police units. An empowered PCA at the state level, along with a subordinate structure of Public Grievances Board in every district, would not only ensure that the public complaints are properly looked into, but would also encourage better conduct and behaviour among the police. It would also give them insulation from external pressures. Further, innovative initiatives like the Yuva Scheme of Delhi Police to prevent vulnerable youngsters from entering crime would get a fillip and make police people-friendly, instead of working as an Establishment Protection Agency.

Another major change needed is the trust of law in police, since due to the lack of it witnesses can be managed to turn hostile. The mistrust in police prevalent during the British days only continues. And the police too, continue with their indulgence in coercion, third-degree methods, concoction and padding of evidence. In the USA, any statement made before the FBI, if found to be incorrect, means prison sentence for the person making it. We need to reach this stage for the police to be impartial and effective. Faith begets faith.

It is thus essential that the gateway of the Criminal Justice System is redesigned and strengthened. But who will bell the cat? People can only look up to the Supreme Court. Like Gods, they can only discipline the evil forces in a hijacked democracy.

(Dr. N Dilip Kumar, IPS (retd) is a former Member of Public Grievances Commission, Delhi. The views expressed are strictly personal)