Click to play videoNew Delhi: An eye for an eye is the only kind of justice Rajendra Prasad and his family believes in. Twenty-one years ago, Rajendra's brother Mahender Kumar was picked up by the Delhi police for a minor offence.
In custody, Mahender was subjected to third degree torture - his nails were pulled out and his body suffered fractures in more than 40 places. Mahender died the next morning.
“I feel like locking up all policemen in a room and shooting them dead. Even if it means a death sentence for me,” says Rajendra.
Mahender’s mother Raj Kali too is bitter. “All policemen are our enemies,” she says. And for her, enemy no.1 is ACP RP Tyagi - who - after 20 years of legal battle - will serve eight years in prison – a punishment she thinks is too less for the crime.
Between 2003 and 2006, 303 people died in police custody. More than half of whom had been simply picked up by the police without any court order.
"There's no fear of the law, because he knows that even if he resorts to the ugliest form of violence no one can touch him,” says Member (CHRI), Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Dr Pushkar Raj.
Another case is that of Vicky - a caddie at the Delhi Golf Course. He was picked up by the police earlier this month and died mysteriously the same day.
“Police threatened me that if I gave a statement against them, they would kill my other sons as well,” says Vicky’s mother Babli.
While protectors turn offenders, senior police officials too do not give a very encouraging picture.
Former DGP, Uttar Pradesh, Prakash Singh says, "They like the status quo to be maintained, because that suits the bureaucracy, the executive and the politicians. It helps them foist false cases against their opponents."
Facing the brunt are people like Rajendra and Babli who now live without faith and in fear of the police.
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