RIGHTS-INDIA: Politicians Blamed for Growing Police Brutality

By Ranjit Devraj Reprint | | Print |

Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Oct 23 2000 (IPS) - Ershad Khan’s death at the hands of four policemen who mercilessly beat him before the eyes of his four- year-old son in the Indian capital, has revived calls for drastic reform in the country’s police force.

The Delhi government granted Khan’s family 1,500 U.S. dollars in compensation and the city police chief ordered the arrest of two of the law enforcers involved in the early October daylight, roadside assault. Several senior police officers have been transferred and an investigation ordered into the incident.

But human rights groups say that much more needs to be done if India’s police force is to shed its “repressive” ways, inherited from the days of colonial British rule.

Khan’s death is not an isolated case of police brutality, they say. It could not be hidden from public view because it happened on the streets rather than in police custody, they point out.

“There is an oath of silence among police officials within police stations,” said Sankar Sen, Director General of the National Human Rights Commission, who is conducting a separate inquiry into the fatal attack on Khan.

The incident took place even as India’s Supreme Court demanded details of custodial deaths in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. No less than 160 cases of deaths in police lock-up, were reported in the state in the last six months.

In a widely reported incident in that state, a young woman was jailed for three days in the state capital Lucknow when she refused to pay money to two policemen who stopped her as she was riding a scooter.

“The Indian Police has a long tradition of being a partisan instrument in the hands of the rulers since colonial times,” says former Delhi police chief Ved Marwah, who is now a research academic at the Centre for Policy Research in the Indian capital.

Marwah, one of India’s best known police officials, has long argued in favour of a more citizen-friendly police force. However, he thinks this is not easy because of the growing links between politicians and criminals in the country.

A section of police officers, instead of fighting crime and criminals, has decided to become part of the politician-criminal nexus, simply “because doing so was profitable and less risky,” says Marwah.

He attributes brutality by low level police personnel to the fact that it has the tacit support of senior police officials.

“The fact is that the practice also enjoys the support of a large section of the public in the mistaken belief that it is necessary for effective maintenance of law and order,” he claims.

“The problem, however, is that it does not take long for some officers to resort to strong-arm methods for extortion and for political ends. The growing nexus between the police, politician and criminal is a logical outcome of this process,” he adds.

An independent study by social scientist Ramesh Bhan found a growing number of senior police officers getting involved in serious crimes like rapes, murders and custodial deaths.

“As the nexus between criminals and politicians becomes stronger, it is able to subvert the loyalty of functionaries at various levels in the government, including the police,” says Bhan’s study.

A probe by the Uttar Pradesh state government found links between several senior officers of the elite Indian Police Service (IPS) and notorious criminal gangs in the state.

According to Marwah, the problem worsened three decades ago when the state freed the police force from judicial control and put it under the control of politicians.

Attempts to reform the police force are not new. The National Police Commission has recommended an improvement in working conditions at the lowest level. It has advised that police constables be treated as skilled workers and ensured proper living and working terms.

Psychologists too blame poor working conditions for police brutality, specially in the Indian capital.

“The high levels of noise, heat, vehicular emissions and the endless grind of interacting with the public and anti-social elements on a daily basis can be extremely strenuous,” says Jitender Nagpal of the Vidyasagar Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (VIMHANS).