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Guna violence rattles police
THE MURDER of a police inspector in Guna has shocked police brass. The killing of a Station Officer is a rare incident and the fact that the incident did not occur in a district affected by Naxals or dacoits has further alarmed the police. Across the department, the discontent is palpable as the general feeling is that junior police officials are left to tackle tough situations while the rest of the district administration allegedly abdicates its duties and often the middle and lower rung of policemen are left to take a decision.
THE MURDER of a police inspector in Guna has shocked police brass. The killing of a Station Officer is a rare incident and the fact that the incident did not occur in a district affected by Naxals or dacoits has further alarmed the police.
Across the department, the discontent is palpable as the general feeling is that junior police officials are left to tackle tough situations while the rest of the district administration allegedly abdicates its duties and often the middle and lower rung of policemen are left to take a decision.
Although the failure of intelligence is an important factor, the sentiment is that if the Mahapanchayat of Bhils occurred and no less than 3,000-4,000 tribals moved, district administration should also have been aware but there was no competent official or magistrate on the spot who could order firing resulting in the death of an inspector.
“Had inspector VS Sapre not died, Bhils who were going to attack Meena-dominated villages would not have stopped and it could have resulted in much bloodshed and killings but the death of a uniformed men deterred them, however, he gets no credit,” rued a police official in the PHq.
Besides, a section of policemen feel while the SP was shifted, no responsibility was fixed on any other official of the district administration. Middle-level policemen are bitter and expressed their anger that the inspector who died in the line of duty hardly got any sympathy from either politicians or bureaucrats.
Police officials say that the morale of the brass is affected as they always face the stick while other officials are let off without any action.
Citing parallels with the recent death of Professor HS Sabharwal in Ujjain, policemen claim officials of district administration hardly came to the scene and such an evasive attitude may lead to a situation where police could also stop taking any action as the axe mostly falls on policemen who take action while those missing from the scene escape from any disciplinary action.
Justifying high crime rate
NATIONAL CRIME Record Bureau’s (NCRB) report recently put three cities of Madhya Pradesh amongst the top five cities in the country in incidence and rate of total cognisable crimes. Indore led all cities on this count. Senior officials were naturally ill at ease to explain the high rate. However, the explanation is that Madhya Pradesh police is much more sensitive and registers most of the cases that come to it including reports of minor scuffles that are not readily registered elsewhere.
Besides, officials argue that compared to other states, far less incidents involving firearms are reported in Madhya Pradesh. Also, the figure of murders in Patna (over 200 murders annually in Patna compared to 70-odd for Bhopal) come in handy for police to prove that cities in the State are much safer.
Casteist vision
THE DISTRICT police are yet to get rid of the age-old practice of mentioning the accused’s name along with his caste rather than surname. The other day Habibganj police dropped the surname of a youth and replaced it with ‘mehtar’. Despite directives issued in the past to do away with this practice that dates from pre-Independence era, the offensive way of referring to people as per their religion and caste rather than surname continues and even finds place in official press note of the police.
