One of the Haryana IPS cadre officers of the rank was recently convicted, nine years after a crime, which he thought, was one way, to cover up his dalliance and liaison with a married media woman. Shivani Bhatnagar, the victim in the case, had given birth to a child, fathered by the convicted accused, RK Sharma. She wanted him, to marry her. Well it is just one of the crimes of which many people and Nations are ashamed. It is true that one live is one’s own life, is one’s own choice. But such a choice does not include, finishing of people, whom you find inconvenient. The trouble is that power becomes heady, when one is in a position of power. One feels, that one can literally get away with the murder. Two high profile cases involving policemen have recently dominated the National media, one of RK Sharma, the other of an Assistant Commissioner of police, who was considered an encounter specialist.
Haryana’s case reflect that when women, whether married, or not go wrong, men will go right after them. But the truth is that the other woman always looks more beautiful and more fascinating. Right from time immemorial, sex has been the guiding factor in the life of kings and commoners. The only difference has been that the rulers could not only pick and choose, but also discard when they had their fill. Unfortunately, police has a very appalling and shocking history, in these matters, as the following instances of the recent past will show. Madhya Pradesh Director General of Police was removed from his post, following the initiation of a criminal case against him by the economic offences wing under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code in connection with the manner in which he got his son admitted to an engineering college in 2001 under the NRI quota.
In February, 2008, Delhi high court slapped a Rs. 100,000 fine on the Delhi police for illegally detaining three people in separate incidents in the city in 2007, and ordered an enquiry into the matter by the Central Bureau of Investigation ( CBI) and punishment for the guilty officials.
The matter came to light when two people, Sanjiv and Dalip, approached the court, demanding a compensation of Rs 1 million from the Delhi police for keeping them in custody without any reason. Another DG of Haryana is facing prosecution by the CBI for sexual harassment, which led to the committing of suicide a young girl.
In February 2008, CBI arrested two senior police officers in connection with, with what has come to be known as Moga sex scandal, in Punjab, in which several prominent people including politicians, businessmen and journalists were allegedly engaged in extortion after trapping unsuspecting people. The names of a number of police officers, including IG and Commissioner of Police level had cropped up in Telgi Stamp scam.
The catalogue of police men involved in criminal activities is too big to be recounted. Even after sixty one years of Independent India, the Nation has been waiting that some Government would wake up, bring about police reforms and end atrocities on the people, and terminate criminalization tendencies, in the defenders of the common people that are the Police. The first step should be to cleanse the police force of the criminal element.