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Bail for Union Carbide chief challenged

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NK SINGH Bhopal: A local lawyer has moved the court seeking cancellation of the absolute bail granted to Mr. Warren Ander son, chairman of the Union Carbide Corporation, whose Bhopal pesticide plant killed over 2,000 persons last December. Mr. Anderson, who was arrested here in a dramatic manner on December 7 on several charges including the non-bailable Section 304 IPC (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), was released in an even more dramatic manner and later secretly whisked away to Delhi in a state aircraft. The local lawyer, Mr. Quamerud-din Quamer, has contended in his petition to the district and sessions judge of Bhopal, Mr. V. S. Yadav, that the police had neither authority nor jurisdiction to release an accused involved in a heinous crime of mass slaughter. If Mr. Quamer's petition succeeds, it may lead to several complications, including diplomatic problems. The United States Government had not taken kindly to the arrest of the head of one of its most powerful mul...

Police Commissioner is not a magic wand


NK SINGH


There is no doubt that we need police commissioner system in larger towns of Madhya Pradesh. The much needed administrative reform is long overdue. Sky has not fallen in the 70 odd cities of the country where the system already exists, giving wide sweeping powers to men, and women, in khaki.

There is also little doubt that along with this reform we also need, immediately, a robust system of dealing with complaints against police.  A police commissioner is not a magic bullet for crime control, the first and foremost duty of a government.

The controversy over police commissioner system is essentially a war of hegemony between upper caste IAS and lower caste IPS.

I was part of a committee on police reforms, constituted by MP Government in 1994, that recommended police commissioner system, as did many commissions and committees before that.

The committee was headed by MC Trikha, a retired IPS officer known for his expertise in intelligence work. Ashok Patel, a Padma Shri and a highly decorated police officer known for excellent field work, was its member secretary. I was, so to speak, the only civilian member of the committee, and as such, I guess, supposed to represent the people.

The committee toiled for nearly six years before submitting its report, spread over 25 volumes and thousands of pages, to the government. We took our job seriously. The government did not. Digvijay Singh, who was the chief minister at that time, could not get it implemented.

 Those 25 volumes must be gathering dust somewhere in the graveyards of Vallabh Bhavan, the nerve centre of state administration at Bhopal. I wish someone has the time to read it, and read it in totality.

You can’t pick up the chapter on police commissioner and ignore the chapters on abolition of orderly system or an all powerful ombudsman to hear complaints against police. Our recommendations, based mostly on excellent work done by national police commission, were based on the doctrine of power with accountability.

An Ombudsman for complaints against police  

The committee had proposed an ombudsman called Police Complaint Authority, on the model of New Zealand, to be established on the lines of Lokayukt.  We wanted the report of ombudsman to be binding on the government.

It also recommended mandatory judicial enquiry (not magisterial) in cases of death, grievous hurt or rape of woman in police custody. The ombudsman was important in the scheme of things because the committee had come to the conclusion that police was protecting corrupt in their own ranks.

The committee was not surprised, as no one would be, over complaints of widespread corruption. When a policeman wants a thana or field posting, everyone, including the officers and political bosses who sanction that, know what he is angling for.

In fact, 67 per cent of the officers we interviewed candidly admitted that “corruption was rampant in police force”. (However, asked to give a list of officers who could be compulsorily retired for, the police headquarters could not find a single worthy last year!)

Politician-police-mafia nexus 

“The nexus between money power and political power has broken down resistance at the lower level of police administration in the field, “ said the report, concluding that, because of it “a strong nexus has developed between the dishonest police officers and dishonest politicians and mafia.”

The solution was draconian. We recommended weeding out corrupt officers under article 311(2) (c) of the constitution, under which President of India can dismiss at one at his pleasure.

The committee recommended abolition of orderly system as we found that officers were misusing the trained police force for menial jobs like cooking, washing clothes, looking after pet dogs and cattle, sweeping houses, polishing shoes, babysitting and tilling agricultural land. Orderly system was one of the grievances of policemen when they revolted in 1981 in MP.  

MP police had an IG called KF Rustamji in the early 60s. He was the only IG in the state.

Now MP has 96 officers in the rank of IG and above to do the same job! As any casual visitor to police headquarters would testify, many of the officers posted there sit idle, sipping tea and busy with petty squabbles and office intrigues.

Merely introducing a system that already exists in 71 other cities of the country is not going to control crime.

Tailpiece

A wag has come out with an innovative suggestion for smooth introduction of police commissioner system:  appoint IAS officers as police commissioners of Indore and Bhopal. That will, goes the argument, stop the bureaucrats’ opposition to the new system.

After all, if IPS officers can be appointed in culture, finance, excise and transport departments, why not IAS officers in police administration?

My column, Powers That Be, in DB Post of 31 March 2018.

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