Police Reforms Are Urgently Needed
The India Commentary view
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By Our Editorial Team
First publised on 2022-07-08 09:00:13
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The India Commentary view
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The urgency for police reforms in India has been highlighted by several recent events that have shown how a police force that blindly follows the instructions of its political masters makes a mockery of law and its responsibility as keepers of the law. Criminal action is initiated against a person in one state and the police from that state goes to arrest the offender in another state (sometimes without following due process) and the police force in that other state (governed by another political party) prevents them from taking action against the accused or arresting him or her.
Recently it first happened in the case of Delhi BJP leader Tejinder Singh Bagga against whom a case was filed in AAP-ruled Punjab. The Punjab Police team that came to arrest him was intercepted by Haryana Police on the request of Delhi Police (both controlled by the BJP) when they were taking him to Punjab. A Delhi Police team went to Haryana and bought Bagga back. It was then alleged that the Punjab Police team did not inform their Delhi counterparts nor did they have transit remand from a Delhi court to take Bagga to Punjab.
Now, in the case of TV anchor Rohit Ranjan, a Chhattisgarh (governed by the Congress) police team landed in Noida to arrest him for airing a misleading video of Rahul Gandhi following which a case that was registered against him in that state. Ranjan informed the UP (governed by BJP) Police who promptly landed up at his home and arrested him on another charge to prevent the Chhattisgarh police from arresting him. Once again the familiar charges that the Chhattisgarh police did not inform the UP police and did not have transit remand from a local court were made.
Why is there no clarity on the procedure to be followed in case of inter-state arrests? Since this is happening with increasing frequency, either the Criminal Procedure Code must be amended properly to insert detailed procedure to be followed in case the police from one state wants to arrest an accused from another state or the Supreme Court must issue detailed guidelines for the same. The present situation is such that politicized police forces are making a mockery of law. The best thing would be to initiate comprehensive police reforms to keep all investigative agencies free from political interference. But no political party will easily give away the habit of using the police to harass dissenters and political opponents. That is the real tragedy.
