Shielding the guilty officials and betraying the public

There is this unfortunate tendency of some senior police officers and some in other government departments to shield, cover up or overlook the misconduct and wrongdoings of junior officers and subordinate staff. Such misplaced sense of loyalty and support eventually leads to a breakdown of discipline and results in subsequent gross misconduct on the part of such subordinate staff. This happened in Punjab during the late eighties and early nineties when fake encounters had become the norm for the state police.

During the mid-eighties, an air service was started between Kota and Delhi. A small shelter at the airport served as its office. General Officer Commanding (GoC) of the division in Kota, who was the seniormost army officer in Rajasthan, was stopped by a deputy superintendent of police (DSP) who wanted to carry out his body search before he was to board the aircraft. The GoC was in uniform and from where the DSP was standing, one could see the pilot jeep along with a number of military police personnel as the GoC arrived. The GoC did not allow the DSP to carry out his body search. The DSP was rude and had misbehaved.

On return from Delhi, the GoC wrote to the DG Police in Jaipur about the conduct of this DSP. The DGP did not respond, but his staff officer wrote back, justifying the DSP’s conduct. The GoC pursued the case through staff channels. Finally, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) issued instructions to the police to suspend the DSP and initiate disciplinary action against him.

The attitude of senior officers to shield the misconduct and wrongdoings of juniors eventually leads to indiscipline, bad behaviour and corruption.

There is this incident which took place in Patiala on the intervening night of March 13-14, wherein four police inspectors and eight policemen in civil dress beat up a serving colonel of the Army (Col Pushpinder Singh Bath) and his son while they were having food at a roadside dhaba. The police personnel were apparently drunk, both with the false sense of authority and, perhaps, liquor as well. Otherwise, at least one the four inspectors would have tried to restrain the others from assaulting the colonel and his son. Even when the colonel told them that he was an army officer and showed his identity card, they did not stop beating him, but instead snatched his card and phone. They continued to hit him with sticks as he lay unconscious on the ground and kept beating his son as he tried to shield his father. These policemen told the son to collect the identity card the next morning only if they survived this encounter.

A day before, these police personnel had staged an encounter and, for them, this was yet another encounter. The way the policemen continued to beat the colonel was nothing short of an attempt to murder. The colonel’s arm and his son’s nose were fractured.

The colonel’s wife raised the alarm. She was driven from pillar to post as she tried to bring the case to the notice of the authorities. The SSP, Patiala, tried to strike a compromise between the colonel’s family and the police personnel and cover up the case. The policemen apologised and sought forgiveness from the colonel’s family for their conduct and, at the same time, gave a veiled threat to the family as it had to live in Patiala and so also these police personnel.

If one were to delve into the past record of these police inspectors, it is possible that it would be found that their previous wrongdoings had been covered up or, perhaps, even rewarded.

Some two days after this serious crime, a false FIR was registered against some unknown persons in the name of the owner of the dhaba where this incident took place. Two features of this FIR are intriguing. One, the identity of the culprits in this crime was shown as ‘not known’ and it was recorded that the colonel and his son were drinking liquor when this incident took place. Two, the names and other details of these police personnel were known to the police and the medical examination of the colonel and his son, carried out in the civil hospital, showed that they had not taken liquor.

Subsequently, attempts were made by senior police officers to strike a compromise between the colonel’s family and the police personnel.

A second FIR by Col Pushpinder Singh was recorded after eight days, only when the incident had come into the public gaze and ex-servicemen had staged a ‘dharna’ in front of the deputy commissioner’s office. Attempts seem to have been made to exclude the name of one of the four inspectors involved in this crime. These policemen were merely suspended and not arrested and, that too, when pressure was built on the SSP, Patiala.

The police constituted a team of senior police officers to look into the case. However, this incident of criminal assault, where an attempt seems to have been made to kill the colonel, is too serious a case to be dealt by a departmental inquiry. The colonel’s wife made desperate attempts to meet senior police officers, but they could not see her as they were rather busy. The Chief Minister finally agreed to meet her on March 31.

The response to her pleas from senior police officers made her realise that fair play may not come about. So, she demanded that the case be handed over to the CBI for an unbiased investigation.

Finally, a spirited advocate took up this case with the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Soon after, Colonel Bath’s application before the high court too surfaced. These two applications have been clubbed and the court has taken up the case.

At one time, the Punjab police was considered the best in the country. Today, it is rated rather low. This slide must be arrested. Lawlessness, free flow of drugs and illegal dispatch of young people to foreign countries by fake companies are rampant. Corruption, too, persists.

The Punjab Police has many competent officers. They must put an end to illegal activities. They must attend to the wrongdoings of the junior staff, enforce discipline and ensure their good behaviour towards the public at large. It is well within their capability and capacity to bring law and order back on rails and restore the Punjab Police’s standing in the country.

Comments