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Police atrocities are not new in MP, admin hardly takes notice
The Balaghat incident in which an RSS pracharak was allegedly beaten on September 25 would have hardly moved the government had the victim not been a responsible office-bearer of RSS, the parental organisation of the ruling party.
The Balaghat incident in which an RSS pracharak was allegedly beaten on September 25 would have hardly moved the government had the victim not been a responsible office-bearer of RSS, the parental organisation of the ruling party.
Police atrocities are not new in Madhya Pradesh, but the government hardly takes notice of them.
A couple of years back, the Indore bench of Madhya Pradesh high court witnessed an interesting petition. The petitioner claimed a hardened criminal Bansilal Gujar, who was killed in a police encounter, was found alive in a jail. Also, another criminal Ghyanshyam Dhakad who was declared killed in a road accident was found lodged in another jail.
The court directed the CBI to complete the investigation in six months while terming the incident as unfortunate. The petitioner alleged that the police killed the two to protect hardened criminals from being prosecuted.
In another alleged fake encounter in 2004, Shaym Bamnia was killed by the Khajrana police in Indore. Bamnia’s crime was that he had allegedly killed constable Rajendra Singh Raghuvanshi for purportedly trying to molest his wife, Reshambai.
In 2008, a judicial magistrate first class ordered booking of 12 policemen on charges of murder on a petition of Reshambai.
These are not the only incidents in the state when police allegedly committed excesses and an investigation was ordered by the court only.
As per the National Crime Record Bureau statistics, 2016, Madhya Pradesh police was on the top of the chart as far as complaints against policemen were concerned. The number of complaints, though the figure was contested by the state police, stood at 10,089.
Departmental inquiry was instituted in 2473 cases, judicial probe into two and magisterial inquiry into none. The number of criminal cases lodged against the police personnel was 84 only.
To placate the RSS in the Balaghat incident, which called for a bandh to protest the incident, 10 policemen, including an ASP, a TI and an ASI, were placed under suspension. An FIR was lodged against them under stricter sections of IPC and teams were constituted to track down the accused to arrest them.
Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, home minister Bhupendra Singh, several ministers and even union minister Narendra Singh Tomar termed the incident ‘unfortunate’ even though an inquiry was ordered to look into the incident.
The Indore police had faced charges of killing a youth, Ashish Gohil, in a fake encounter in 2007. In this case too, the police or the government didn’t take notice of the deceased relatives’ complaints.
In Indore again, Akram Shah was allegedly beaten up by crime branch constables. His fault was his pushcart hit the constables’ bike accidentally. Their assault on Akram Shah was so brutal that he became disabled with spinal injury permanently.
A ruling party leader, Atiq Ahmad, in Rewa died after he was arrested and allegedly beaten by the police a few months back. Locals staged protests that turned so violent that the government had to suspend Kotwali in-charge and five other policemen and booked them under section 302 of IPC.
A violent protest was also witnessed in Bhind when a youth allegedly died in police custody. It was in August this year when a railway police constable beat up a youth in Gwalior on theft suspicion. He fell unconscious but the constable, who was later suspended, dragged him by tying a cloth around his neck.
State Congress spokesperson JP Dhanopia said the Balaghat incident showed double standard of the state government. In several cases of excesses, the government protected the police but, in this episode, it had to take action against the erring cops under RSS’ pressure.
Former director general of police SC Tripathi said the police often faced a difficult situation as in the case of Balaghat. Had the police not taken action and the town witnessed a communal flare-up, the police would have faced a barrage of attacks.
When it took action it faced harsh charges under section 307 of IPC. The government should have looked into the basic question of law if the police personnel accused had any intention to kill the RSS pracharak.
High-handed police in state
A petitioner claimed in the Indore bench of MP high court that hardened criminal Bansilal Gujar, who was killed in a police encounter, was found alive in a jail
Another criminal Ghyanshyam Dhakad who was declared killed in a road accident was found lodged in another jail
In another alleged fake encounter in 2004, Shaym Bamnia was killed by the Khajrana police in Indore
As per the National Crime Record Bureau statistics, 2016, Madhya Pradesh police was on the top of the chart as far as complaints against policemen were concerned
The Indore police had faced charges of killing a youth, Ashish Gohil, in a fake encounter in 2007
