Sometime back a young girl was raped and murdered…one among the many such incidences that have happened and are happening around the country. We read about it one day and then a new event catches our eye. What happens to the people you read about the other day? What is happening to these cases? Are the guilty being punished or let off due to lack of evidence or do these cases just disappear into thin air? Or does the government machine quietly chug its way and chase the case to its end?
We the public tend to lose interest to such events after the initial reaction to such news. And if I want to know what happened to these cases, the bureaucratic apparatus is so well laid out that it might take me many frustrating forms and babus pockets to fill and long hours in musty government building corridors to get to know what happened. In fact I will be laughed off the government building if I were to inquire what happened to such cases.
Nobody ever knows what happens to these cases. The high profile cases attract some attention, till a newer and more gruesome act is performed by someone else. And the ‘fresher’ news gets our attention.
It is true that we are a populous nation and our Police Stations are understaffed. But what alarms me is the lethargy that one finds in the cops when you go to a station with a complaint.
Recently the Police sold an ‘unclaimed’ body to the St John’s College and Hospital. It was later revealed that the body had 32 stab injuries. The son of the deceased raised a hue and cry and the body was released to him and the cops pulled up. How many such cases are shoved under the carpet? Scores of bodies are found on the railway tracks in Karnataka…the cops merely keep it in the morgue and dispose it off if it is unclaimed to medical colleges for a fee. No attempt is made to find the family or killers.
Today Police Stations have become place where you file an FIR so that you can collect the Insurance, Inheritance etc. The cops have stopped making investigations unless the case is high profile or the victims have ‘connections’. There is a marked lethargy among the Police force. They have become mere paper pushers now.
God help us all.
11 comments:
exactly..often used to think about the same..many high profile cases like..one about rahul mahajan..that rich kid from delhi who ran over a poor policeman..so many of em..the enthusiam which the media showed in sensationalising this incidents is lost in the first few days..why dont they give the full story..
forget about the common people..they dont even garner attention..recently a news about some guy abandoning a kid in train was a primetime news in CNN...the incidents back home are more gruesome and questioning normal human sense..they never are heard..
All those movies where they show superstar "Suresh Gopish Policemen"..are they a myth..
A well trained clean Police can make a lot of difference in the country..sadly our police has become puppets dancing to the tune of politicians..
Its true that the law&order situation in India is a sorry state with a lot of laws and nothing close to order. People find it convenient to lynch criminals and take law into their own hands. What no1 bothers to know is that the police were sleeping when all this happened and today i saw in TV that in Delhi University the gals were teased by policemen who were ther to protect them from eve-teasers! Don't know when the day will come when we see cops like "Bharatchandran IPS" who, in his own words, don't give a S**T abt the politicians or babus!
Good post! 1 point i can't leave is that in India police can't even find a missing person after months, so how'd they find the relatives to handover deadbodies?
hmm Unless we help ourselves God wont help us dear ...it is we as his representatives who have to clear up the mess we have made of his beautiful creation ..each one of has our psecific purpose just like diffferent members of a team assigned to us which we need to accomplish in this life .
This problem is more or less linked to your earlier post of greasing the palms........
As the proverb goes ...."Panathinu meethe parunthum parakilla" (Even Eagles dont fly over money ;))
Our police system is still the one designed and developed by the British. Its main purpose was to keep the people on a tight leash, always in terror so that they could rule us. Our police is still doing the same thing--terrifying the common man and serving the rich and powerful (instead of the British). That is why people with money and connections get away and the common man spends years in jails even though he is innocent.
It is high time that we reformed our police system. Here we can take a leaf from the British. The police in UK (Bobby) is a good example of how a police should be. They are friendly, helpful and people are not terrified to approach them. But that will not serve the interests of the high and mighty. So we will have to live with what we have and suffer :-(
Mathew: The media is not interested in justice. Only viewer ship. Remember the CNN IBN coverage of the Mumbai blasts and Rajdeep going on repeating "This news is bought to you only by CNN IBN"!! You are right, those super cops they show are myths and the public laps up such movies because it is so nice to see the bad guys being bought to justice for a change!
Abhi: The cops are a highly demoralized lot too. When their efforts are wasted by politicians they tend to lose interest in their job in the long run. About relations finding dead bodies of their kith and kin, these happen when the dead relation is of some monetary value :)
shruthi: Hope we clear up the mess soon!!
AP That was a good proverb. Hearing it for the first time :)
Alexis: That was a totally new perspective and makes a lot of sense!!
One of the root problem why the public hate cops are because of the media. Most of the movies, the way in which cops are portraied is in a negative role. They are mostly shown as bribe taking, fit for nothing types. Once the public sees these movies, their mindset is changed. Once movies comes with good character cops[there are some of them where Suresh gopi acts...], I think the police themself will get more inspiration to behave nice. After living in US for couple of years, One thing I noticed is that we can approach cop with confidence. [well, not 100% true always, there are ofcourse bad apples...]
yes absolutely correct.
and ur comment - "The media is not interested in justice. Only viewer ship" - i totally agree with that.. just think of the situation where one news channel catches up on some info. or gets an interview of someone involved in some case, the other news channels do not even bother to mention this in their broadcasts, leave alone getting a copy of it and airing it..
if it's corrupt politicians one one hand, it's the impotent bureaucrats on the other.. police on one and media to worsen the situation by sensitising.
The crux of the problem lies in the fact that the cops in India are severely underpaid by the Indian Govt. If you compare the situation with that in US or Australia, being a cop there is a position of dignity and privilege. Their salary is 3 times more than that what a good Engineering company pays.
Being underpaid means there's a lot of room given for bribes n corruption.
The Govt shud spend money where it matters the most!
-Rosh
Two cents:
1. Root cause of this bureaucracy is corruption. Be it police, be it ministry, be it law or be it even the government canteen waiter. The very basic thing that should be done is to erase this and then reinstitute constitution. As easy as formatting a computer. :)
2. The common idea that is imparted to policemen is that they should be hostile, bite the teeth while seeing comedy movie, look at the face of common men with shakthi kapoor face etc. They need to see how policemen behave in US. They call us sir, and ask us if we are fine and ok - if we have jumped the speed limit and is driving hysterically :). Then they do get into the matter - but like a civilised human being. The idea that police is to serve the people shud sell.
God help us all.
I'm sure the motto of our police is 'dooty first, booty second', and so on reading this they promptly locked the gods up :)
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