<< This
Article was a part of an old series called 'Kartavya Dharmadhikari' which is
now discontinued >>
A first hand account by
Kartavya Dharmadhikari :-
"Yeah I admit that I had never known that even I
could be the target one day. It was much easier to watch this happen to
others.", said Jaspal Singh.
To begin with, I did not like when anybody
raised their voice in my office. Only I could do that here! Jaspal Singh
was not helping huimself. He could not afford to behave in this manner over
here if he needed our help. He strongly demanded that he will talk only to me
and not to anyone else. Tens of people visit my office everyday. But my team
forwards only a select few very sensitive and high profile cases to me. That's
the protocol that we have been following. But Jaspal Singh was in no mood to
obey.
After the whole hubbub I anyway decided to listen to him.
We would first thoroughly interrogate anyone who came to us with a case. I made
Jaspal Singh sit in the room. I was asking him questions while 3 of my
subordinates were taking notes. Jaspal Singh said," I left Delhi at once with
my family. It was no longer safe for us over there. The mob had almost killed
me." It was really fascinating to hear 'the Deputy Commissioner of
Police (Delhi), Jaspal Singh' say those words. Frankly, it sounded
very funny to me. Here in front of me was a 56 year old police officer, trying
hard to gather himself after all what life taught him so late. In our lives,
some events can be so bizarre that we are forced to do really very weird
things. I mean look at this man. He met me for the first time and he was giving
me some really classified information. Information which can be an overnight
blockbuster in the media. Information about people who are really strong. And I
mean it- Stronggg !! And information of that level which will make them want to
kill you if they knew that you knew.
No matter how tough you are, you really can not see an old
man, a family man, cry. The case: a girl was gang-raped near sector number
1234, Delhi. Sector 1234 falls under the jurisdiction of DCP Jaspal Singh.
There was absolute outrage in the whole country after that incident. Yes, we
all know about it. I was aware that there were protests against a few police
officials and politicians of that area. Little did I know that DCP Jaspal Singh
was attacked by a mob. A mob sent by a politician whose Jaspal was a loyal
servant of for the past so many years. The politician's name was Satyadev
(ironically). And Oh Boy, Satyadev gave up on him...!! That too big time...!!
Though I did feel pity for the old man, I told him straight
on his face that whatever he was telling me will not be taken as an excuse or
justification for his sins. With tears and rage in his eyes he said,"
People blame the police for inaction. And if nothing else prevails, they blame
the judiciary of our country. Kartavya, tell me the truth. What happens when a
police officer in Mumbai arrests, for any damn reason, a man who is politically
powerful ?" I admitted that somehow they are set free. Let alone
arresting, even if such a powerful man is caught for traffic violations, he
will make a few phone calls and eventually he does not get any punishment.
He said," Exactly. Kartavya, there are three types of
people- citizens, police and politicians. When there are more citizens and less
politicians, the police remains police. But do you know what happens when there
are more politicians and less citizens? The police no longer remains police.
The police becomes a part of the powerless poor citizens. " I understood
where he was going with this. It must be impossible for these police officers
to bring the wrongdoers to justice when most of the times the wrongdoer is-
either a politician himself, a member of a political party, a very rich
industrialist who provides funds to the polician or a relative of any of the three.
" Do you know why Satyadev targeted me ? I have had
close association with him for the past couple of decades. I know about all the
hooligans who provide support to Satyadev. And one such group of these
hooligans is involved in the gang-rape. I can easily identify the ones
involved. Due to so much pressure from the media and the public I was about to
disclose their identities. Satyadev started threatening me. But I was certain
that I will go ahead and speak it all out in the press conference. Even my
seniors did not support me. They were all busy doing a lot of brainstorming on
not how to protect the people but instead on how to fool the people by applying
delaying tactics. They were scared of Satyadev and now I know why !! Not only
there was pressure, I knew that it was both- my moral responsibility as a human
to speak the truth and also my duty as a police officer to not let off the
criminals. But before I could speak up, netaji Satyadev had
already given a speech mentioning everything against me. There is no denying
that crime is on a all time high in the capital of my country.
And it was really very easy to point this out and prove my lack of
capabilities. In public, he demanded my resignation and condemned the whole
act. In private, he showed green flags to the hooligans to mob me and my family
at my residence. The sadest part of the story is, the citizens accompanied the
hooligans. They believed in Satyadev."
" Kartavya, I know many things about you. You guys
have made it to the news quite a few times. And that's why I am here. Please
see if there is a way out. My only desire is to let the people know the truth.
I want them to know the sequence of all events that occurred. I want to regain
my respect. I am a father of three. And I want them to be proud of their papa.
I anyway don't want my job back. And I will be more than happy to settle here
in Mumbai."
I am a man with very high ideals. Deep inside my heart I
repeated that I am not going to accept his statements as an excuse for his
previous sins; For all the good that he could have done as a police officer but
he didn't; For not performing his duties in a righteous way. Deep inside I also
feel that he did deserve something like that for being a puppet of someone like
Satyadev for so long. Sad that his family had to suffer. But the mr.
Enlightened should have resigned long long ago if such has been the scenario
always. I also believe that the source of this enlightenment of his is not a
noble one. He turned good only when bad happened to him. Else I am sure he
would have not changed even a bit in his entire life.
But still I did not utter these words to him. It was none
of my business anyway. My job was to make this incident public and see if we
can legally sue Satyadev and his men for what they did to DCP Jaspal Singh.
Though I do agree on many points told by Jaspal. Firstly, when you question our
judiciary, it is really a question on our democracy itself. People need to
realize that judiciary is and will always remain an independent body. It is the
investigative bodies which are pliable. Though these investigative bodies
perform great when it comes to investigating a less powerful man, strangely
their performance drops drastically when it comes to investigating the really
powerful. The judiciary simply gives the judgement based on what the
investigative bodies and the public prosecutors present to it. Secondly, there
is also no denying the helplessness of the police when it comes to dealing with
the very powerful. I still maintain respect for the police.
And there are many such accusations which suggest
that such issues are rampant in the capital of my country. Let
us see what another day brings to me...
