Lacking Wits or Intentionally Witless?

Editorial:-
The State Government has finally woken up to the embarrassment that its investigating agencies have become. The shoddy manner in which the police investigates compromises important cases so severely that even the most professional prosecution cannot earn a conviction even in what appear on surface to be open-and-shut cases. That is not to say that all is well with the prosecution arm of the justice delivery system, and now that the government has woken up [along with other state governments] thanks to a nudge by the Supreme Court, one hopes the prosecution aspect of resolving crimes is also paid due attention. Admittedly though, it is when cases are being investigated and chargesheeted that the need to ensure justice for victims is compromised most of the times. One hopes that the fault in the police department is one of training, because then corrective measures like improved oversight and better grooming will solve the problem. If, however, as many suspect, the bungles are intentional and cases are sabotaged at the investigation and chargesheeting stage on purpose [think about it, how many ‘high profile’ criminal cases, apart from corruption related, have ended in a conviction?], then no number of committees, standing or otherwise, will be of any help. For the latter situation, priorities will have to be realigned in which the people will have to become important again and the need to solve crimes and convict criminals feature in the agenda afresh. At present, these are not the emotions that khaki invokes any more. It has become a force focused on pleasing masters instead of serving the public and playing mediators more often than fixing crime. Anyone who has had to deal with a ‘police case’ will vouch for the fact that beyond inconveniencing everyone involved, the investigators achieve little else – and the best evidence for this is in the frequency with which police investigations fail to stand up to judicial scrutiny. In the past, people, including leaders, picked up during a crackdown on rioters have escaped conviction. More recently, in the shooting case outside a local disco, the police investigation was so botched that it could not even convince the court that the victim had been shot! The accused, caught with his pistol for which the license had expired could not be convicted even on that count. And what was the most disturbing is that the acquittal was played down and kept away from senior officers until it was almost too late to appeal. Even after the need to appeal was brought to the notice of concerned seniors [some of whom will probably sit on the standing committee to ‘analyse’ acquittals], they could not muster the urgency or interest that serving the ends of justice required. Attitudes like this will require more than oversight committees to repair. Political leaders too often make the mistake of favouring a lazy police force because the less than mediocre are always over-eager to please and invariably willing to do as desired. Such a force however serves only very limited purpose because the same political leaders find themselves climbing walls when they need some real police work for a change. Locking people up and packing in allegations work for only so long, because eventually, these charges go to trial, and then comes the ignominy of an embarrassing conviction record, so embarrassing that it now requires a standing committee to analyse acquittals. What can one say but all the best…