Source – thewire.in<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That DSP Davinder Singh of the J&K Police was caught \u201ctransporting\u201d two hardcore Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists and one overground worker (OGW), apparently for a paltry fee of Rs\u00a012 lakh\u00a0should not come as a surprise. What is really a matter of serious concern is that the system had not only \u201ctolerated\u201d him for so long but had also rewarded him. He was due to be\u00a0promoted\u00a0as SP shortly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The tragedy of this country is that as long as bad officers produce \u201cconvenient\u201d results, the system rewards them and takes credit for their work. The moment bad officers produce \u201cinconvenient\u201d results, an opportunistic system dumps them and absolves itself of all responsibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Davinder had come close to trouble several times. In 2001, he was\u00a0transferred\u00a0out of Budgam after massive public protests against custodial deaths. In 2015, he and another DSP of the Special Operations Group (SOG) were named in an\u00a0FIR\u00a0for allegedly extorting money from common people and implicating them in false cases. However, no material damage was done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before his execution in 2013, Afzal Guru had claimed in a\u00a0letter\u00a0from Tihar to his lawyer that Singh had ordered him to take a man to Delhi and arrange accommodation for him. That man was later shot dead in the Parliament attack case. Afzal Guru was\u00a0arrested\u00a0when he went back to Srinagar after his Delhi task was over. Several political parties in Kashmir had\u00a0demanded\u00a0that allegations of Davinder having set-up Afzal be investigated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nothing happened for obvious reasons\u2014the system had to defend itself. Moreover, who cares when lives are sniffed out to satisfy the \u2018collective conscience\u2018 of a nation and in producing \u201cconvenient\u201d results? When asked about Afzal\u2019s allegations, the IG of J&K\u00a0said\u00a0the police had no information about it in their records. However, once the allegation was made and political parties too demanded an inquiry, it was incumbent upon the police to do so. People do not have any trust in the police, and are reluctant to register complaints against one of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The IG also added that Davinder would be treated \u2018at par\u00a0with militants\u2019 (sic). Obviously, the intention was to pre-empt an accusation that they would perhaps treat one of their own with velvet gloves \u2013 the law does not discriminate amongst accused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is not the first time that a bad officer producing \u201cconvenient\u201d results was rewarded by the system. In October 2017, gallantry medals given to three police officials, namely, Dharmendra Choudhary, former Madhya Pradesh additional SP, Punjab police SI Gurmeet Singh and Jharkhand police SI Lalit Kumar were\u00a0withdrawn\u00a0after they were found to be involved in fake encounter, murder and corruption cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Andhra Pradesh fake encounter case<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2010, advocate K.N. Rao filed a PIL before the Andhra Pradesh high court stating that three senior IPS officers of the state \u2013 Shiv Shankar, Sriram Tiwari and Nalin Prabhat \u2013 had never participated in the gun battle with alleged Naxal leaders at Koyyur forest in Karimnagar, and hence could not claim credit for the killing the top leaders, namely, Nalla Adi Reddy, Seelam Naresha and Santosh Reddy on December 2, 1999. Civil rights groups had alleged that the three were arrested by the police from their shelter in Bangalore, brought to Karimnagar in a helicopter and killed in a fake encounter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A division bench comprising Justice G. Raghu Ram and Justice G.V. Seethapathi expressed\u00a0displeasure\u00a0over the way the Central government had gone ahead with the process of awarding gallantry medals to these IPS officers without minimum verification. Observing that the way the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had dealt with the issue had put the prestige and integrity of the medals in jeopardy, the court asked the central government to\u00a0reconsider\u00a0the awards. The Court did not\u00a0accept\u00a0the Centre\u2019s contention that it had gone by the recommendation of the state government and\u00a0said, \u201cThe Centre has a fiduciary duty in processing the recommendation of the state government for the award of medals and it can neither be abdicated nor outsourced to the state.\u201d The court\u00a0commented\u00a0that the \u201caward of medal is not an act of patronage\u2026a spoil of political office nor the product of whim\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Andhra Pradesh high court commented that the \u201caward of medal is not an act of patronage\u2026a spoil of political office nor the product of whim\u2026\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier, the state government had ordered a probe in the matter when some IPS officers also complained about it. However, the inquiry was\u00a0dropped\u00a0in 2007 after these officers claimed that they were present on the spot of the encounter, but their names were not included in the records on the grounds of security! This defies logic. Maybe this could have prevented the Naxals from learning their names\u00a0at that time<\/em>. However, once they got medals, their names and the citations became public knowledge. What could save them from the Naxals then? Did the government intend to tell the people that they gave gallantry medals on blank citations and that it guaranteed security for life! In mid-2005, the state wrote to the Centre, asking the latter to take further action in the matter, including cancellation of the gallantry awards. However, the file apparently got\u00a0lost\u00a0in the bureaucratic maze of the MHA. Media reports had even\u00a0named\u00a0a former DGP of the state of persuading the Centre not to pursue the matter further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are cops and army officers like\u00a0Avtar Singh, who do horrible, filthy things to fellow human beings, which would fill a normal person with revulsion. However, claims that such things happen because there are a few bad hats in the system, is to close our eyes to the real dishonourable intentions of the system. Such people survive and thrive because the system has vested interests in exploiting their \u201cperversions\u201d for its own ephemeral gains. It drops them only when their evil deeds become too hot to hold.<\/p>\n