Click to play videoThe common man's belief that police is incompetent has been reinforced again. Shoddy probe in a hit-and-run case in Mumbai and attempts to cover-up a fake encounter in Gujarat have made people believe that the police is no good.
Alistair Pereira, who crushed seven persons while driving under influence in November 12 last year, is perceived to have got a lighter sentence because of the Mumbai police’s lax investigation. The Bombay High Court on Thursday faulted the police’s investigation.
In Gujarat, a senior CID officer who reported that three IPS officers murdered a businessman and his wife was removed. In this case, the Supreme Court ordered that the CID officer take charge of the case again and observed that prima facie the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) could probe the murders.
The two cases raise a question: Is there a loss of faith in police investigation?
CNN-IBN’s Anubha Bhosle asked this on Face The Nation to a panel comprising Arup Patnaik, Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) in Mumbai, and Kshama Kulkarni, a social activist and chairperson of the Bandra ‘H’ Ward Association.
The Bombay High Court on Thursday scolded the Mumbai police for not questioning Pereira’s co-passengers. “I also do believe you had a chemical analysis report which clearly showed that Alistair Pereira had alcohol, which was much above the permissible limit - you never gave it to the prosecution,” the judge said.
Patnaik rejected the charge that Pereira got a lighter sentence—six-month imprisonment—because of shoddy investigation.
“No, there is no question of managing a stricter sentence,” said Patnaik, who insisted that once an investigation is over nothing is in police’s hand. Patnaik said that in some cases even after best of his efforts there were acquittals and in some cases there were convictions though probe was shoddy.
Probing investigations
The Mumbai police once was once regarded as the best in the country—they were called the Scotland Yard of India. Mumbaikars have that faith in their police now, said Kulkarni.“I am wondering, what’s happened to my police,” she said.
The three policemen who were the first to reach the accident spot on Carter Road were never used as witnesses and the other occupants of Pereira’s car were not examined.
Kulkarni asked whether the police failed or the prosecution.
Patnaik refused to answer comment on a case which is in court, but said that though the two sides work in tandem the police has no control over proceedings as the prosecution works independently in the courts.
Patnaik said that if the accused gets harsher punishment in the hit-and-run case “I don’t think anyone will be happier than the police”.
Police have lost faith in the police, but have trust in the CBI. Why is this?
Patnaik called this a matter of “perception” and said he was with the CBI for five and he has not just changed with the change in uniform. There is no difference in the laws or procedures the CBI and other police forces follow.
Encounter report
In Gujarat, the officer who blew the lid off a fake encounter has been brought back to probe. IG (CID-Crime) Geeta Johri’s report said three IPS officers were involved.
She was replaced but on Thursday the Gujarat police told the court that she had been brought back into the case.
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