“Police ke insaaf aur zulm mein koi farak nahi” (“There is no difference in the justice and the injustice provided by police”) from the Bollywood movie Jeet, “No FIR, no arrest, no talk … faisla on the spot” (“No report, no arrest, no talk … judgement on the spot”) from the Bollywood movie Kranti. Do you know what’s really wrong with these dialogues? The first dialogue expresses the helplessness of a common man in front of the police actions / inaction and the second one glorifies the police’s action of assuming the role of a judge instantly, doing justices (or injustice?) without following the due procedure of FIR, arrest, production before a magistrate, investigation, filing of charge sheet and what not. These dialogues express the collective emotions of the post independence Indian citizens, wherein — 1. They are helpless in front of the police and there is more exploitation by police and less trust between them; & on the other hand 2. They expect police to perform instant justice due to the present inefficient legal system
The primary role of police forces is to uphold and enforce laws, investigate crimes and ensure safety & security for people in the country. Responding to emergencies is another task that they are responsible for.
While constitutionally, law and order — and therefore the police — is placed under the jurisdiction of states, a British era legislation — Police Act of 1861 controls the overall policing structure in India. In force even today, the Police Act was formulated after the Mutiny of 1857 to ensure the revolt of such sort doesn’t happen again — and it never did. Hence, it can be safely concluded that the objective of establishing an institution named police by the British was to keep the masses from rising against the British rule. However, Indian independence marked a major turning point in the history of its police. It marked the transition of Indian police from a colonial heritage to a democratic character. The basic interests of a colonial police are the perpetuation of the colonial rule. In a democratic police, the foremost objective is upholding the interests of the country, its people, its democratic heritage and the sanctity of the constitution. But needless to say, this isn’t visible in the functioning of our country’s police. With our colonizers long gone its time for a massive overhaul in the police system as the time is now for the people’s rights to take a centre stage than controlling them upon the orders of the government via use of brutal force.
Endless list of police atrocities
Post Independence, there have been numerous instances of extrajudicial killings and police violence all over the country
- The 2019 Hyderabad Encounter case wherein all four men accused in the 2019 Hyderabad gang rape were killed in a police encounter
- 1979 Bhagalpur blinding case wherein police blinded 31 individuals under trial by pouring acid into their eyes in Bhagalpur, Bihar.
- Hashimpura Massacre of 1987 in Meerut, UP
- Hundreds of innocent poor people and migrant labourers became victim of police brutalities because of violation of lockdown guidelines. Some of them even died due to the excessive beating by the police. The lockdown in India showed how police tries to serve instant justice by taking the law into their own hands
- Inaction by the police in almost all of the major post independence riots — The 1984 Anti Sikh riots, 1991–1993 riots in Mumbai and UP over Babri Masjid demolition, 2002 Gujarat Riots, 2013 Muzaffarnagar Riots, 2020 Delhi Riots etc
- Use of third degree torture by the police to extract confessions from the accused (the problem and the resultant solution would be covered in detail in a subsequent article)
- Numerous instances of alleged fake encounters like —
- Encounters in Mumbai / Maharashtra during the period of rise of underworld crimes in India in 90s
- Numerous alleged fake encounters in Uttar Pradesh (UP) since 2017 wherein notices were issued to the UP government by the NHRC (National Human Rights Commission) as well as the Supreme Court reprimanding the UP government
- Police encounter during the Punjab insurgency between 1984 and 1995. The victim of an encounter was typically a person whom the police believed to be a militant or involved in the militant separatist movement; proof of alleged militant involvement was rarely given. Sukhwinder Singh Bhatti, a criminal defence attorney in Punjab who defended such suspects, disappeared in May 1994 and is alleged to have been killed by the police
India’s police force is among the world’s weakest… Here’s why
- Understaffed and Over-burdened force: There are only 144 policemen per 100,000 people, a very poor ratio when compared to other modern democracies. Even the UN recommends 222 police personnel per 100,000 people. Further, the police force is over-burdened especially at lower levels where constabulary is forced to work continuously for 14–16 hours, 7 days a week. Long duty hours also tend to test the patience of policemen. Working under tremendous pressure without any respite for relaxation, some of them are constantly on a short fuse and tend to vent their ire on innocent victims
- Police Infrastructure: The weaponry, vehicles etc. used by police force at lower level is obsolete and is unmatched with the modern weaponry used by the criminals and anti-social elements
- Training of police personnel: Police training methods are now out dated. Though the subject of human rights is a part of training curriculum in training institutions, no seriousness is attached to it
- Underreporting of crime: You must have often seen police being reluctant to register FIRs because their performance is judged on the basis of this information. Sometimes victims of crime also decide against reporting the incident because they are afraid to approach the police, or think the crime is not serious enough, etc
- Lack of admiration for their work: They are often treated badly by superiors and receive little or no admiration from the public either
- Politicization of Police: Politicization of police force is a major problem as it affects their autonomy making them to subserve the interests of political executive at the cost of ordinary citizens. In his famous paper known as the Institutionalized Riot System (IRS), Paul Brass, a political scientist, talks about how most riots are “produced” as part of politically motivated stunts and not mere coincidences
- Ineffectiveness against new forms of crimes: Police force is not adequately equipped to tackle present days’ problems of cyber-crimes, global terrorism, naxalism because of its structural weaknesses and aversion to technology
- Trained to be fierce: M.P. Nathanael, a retired Inspector General of Police CRPF wrote correctly in The Hindu — A legacy of the British rulers, brutality has been a tenacious characteristic of the Indian police and precious little has been done to eradicate it. Most policemen are made to believe from their very training days that brutality is inherent in the very role to be performed by them, to instil a certain degree of fear in the citizens. By virtue of being from the same fraternity, most superiors overlook instances of brutality as they consider it an innate demand of the job of policing
- No separation of maintenance of law & order from the investigation role: Crime investigation requires skills and training, time and resources, and adequate forensic capabilities and infrastructure. However, police officers often neglect this responsibility because they are already understaffed and overburdened. Further, they lack the training and the expertise required to conduct professional investigations. They also have insufficient legal knowledge (on aspects like admissibility of evidence) and the forensic and cyber infrastructure available to them is both inadequate and outdated. In light of this, police forces often use force and torture to secure evidence. Further, while crime investigations need to be fair and unbiased, in India they may be influenced by political or other extraneous considerations
- Underutilisation of funds for modernization: Funds are allocated for modernization of police forces. These funds are typically used for strengthening police infrastructure, by way of construction of police stations, purchase of weaponry, communication equipment and vehicles. However, there has been a persistent problem of underutilisation of modernization funds
- Trust deficit: Common People / Communities are the eyes & ears of the Police. Therefore, police-public relations is an important concern in effective policing. It has been noted that police-public relations is in an unsatisfactory state because people view the police as corrupt, inefficient, politically partisan and unresponsive
- Prevailing Corruption: The pay scales of police personnel especially at the lower levels are very low and they are forced to adopt corrupt means to earn their livelihood
This is Part I in a series meant towards highlighting the issues plaguing the Indian police system. Part II focuses on the reforms required
