| by B.Raman
( December 30, 2012, Chennai, Sri Lanka
Guardian) The next step in the case relating to the brutal gang rape and murder
of a 23-year-old girl in New Delhi, who
has passed away, is the investigation
and prosecution of the six accused in
quick time to ensure that justice is done to the Braveheart, whom the shocked
nation looks upon as its daughter. Justice means their conviction and
sentencing to the severest sentence possible under the existing laws.
 |
The number of additional constables and supervisory staff that would be required for this purpose should be estimated and a special sanction issued by the MHA for the recruitment and training of the additional staff needed for preventing crime against women.
The Government has done well to designate a
Special Prosecutor to ensure the successful prosecution of the accused. For
this purpose, the proposed Special Prosecutor should be given whatever
manpower, resources, and expertise that he might require for a successful prosecution.
It would be unwise to be self-complacent
thinking that since the accused have already confessed, getting them convicted
should be no problem. There is every possibility of the accused retracting
their confession as public memory and anger fades. It would be necessary to
strengthen the other evidence that the police are able to collect to supplement
the confessions.
Now that the girl is dead, the most important
piece of evidence, inter alia, will be her dying declaration recorded before a
magistrate in a New Delhi hospital and
the medical findings of the doctors who treated her in New Delhi and Singapore.
The Special Prosecutor and his staff should see that an iron-clad case is made
out of such evidence which will withstand attempts that might be made by the
lawyers of the accused to question their acceptability before the court.
The Special Prosecutor, his staff and the
Police should not let themselves be taken by surprise by any attempts by the
lawyers of the accused to question the reliability of the evidence.
An equally urgent measure will be to
strengthen physical security for women in public transport and in public places
that are used by rapists to commit their
crime. The Government has already announced certain measures such as
verification of the character and antecedents of the staff of public transport
and removal of the coloured windows of the buses.
While necessary, these measures alone would
not be adequate. It is equally important to order that all public transport
plying anywhere in Delhi between 7 PM and 7 AM would have a Constable and
making the staff of the transport and
their owners liable for criminal action if they ply a transport during
these hours without a constable. All public places unfriendly and risky to
women should be identified and static guards should be posted at all such places during these hours.
The number of additional constables and
supervisory staff that would be required for this purpose should be estimated
and a special sanction issued by the MHA for the recruitment and training of
the additional staff needed for preventing crime against women.
The police regulations, manuals, operating
procedures and training syllabi having a bearing on the prevention,
investigation and prosecution of crime against women should be reviewed and
updated in order to make them more women-focussed. There should be a separate
training capsule on crime against women with a separate examination for joining the police at any
level---from constables up to IPS officers.
A list of offences against women, which
should be treated as heinous offences, needs to be drawn up and incorporated in
the police regulations and manuals. All heinous offences against women should
be liable to mandatory supervision by senior police officers of the rank of at
least a Superintendent of Police.
It should be made obligatory for Station
House Officers to record an FIR and start the investigation in respect of all
crimes against women ---whether heinous or not so. There should be a
computerized data base of all crimes against women indicating the stage of
investigation and prosecution in respect of each case.
Separate divisions on crime against women
should be created in the office of the Commissioner of Police and in the office
of the Secretary, Internal Security, of the MHA, and these should serve as the
nodal points for monitoring all action against crime against women. Crime
against women should be treated as seriously as terrorism with special squads
for investigation and prosecution and special courts for trial.
The need for early implementation of the
police reforms recommended by a committee set up by the Morarji Desai
Government and subsequent bodies such as the National Security Advisory Board
and the Special Task Force headed by Shri Naresh Chandra has been stressed by
many. The implementation of the recommendations at the pan-Indian level has
been tardy due to resistance from different State Governments and political
parties. The delay in implementation at the pan-Indian level is likely to
continue.
The Government should, therefore, separate
the recommendations relating to the Delhi police from those relating to other
States and set up a fast-track implementation mechanism. The Delhi Police
cannot be compared to the police of other metropolitan cities. In addition to
tasks relating to crime control and law and order, the Delhi Police performs
important and sensitive tasks of a unique nature relating to VIP security,
including security of visiting foreign VIPS, and diplomatic security.
While there should be no problem in
transferring to the supervision of the Delhi State Government the tasks
relating to crime control and law and order, the MHA has to have a say in the
supervision of matters relating to VIP security and diplomatic security. If
this is also transferred in toto to the State Government, problems of
co-ordination and command and control could arise if different parties come to
power in the Centre and the Delhi State.
Delhi,
therefore, needs a separate policing architecture with the State Government
having primacy of supervision in respect of crime and law and order and the MHA
in respect of VIP and diplomatic security. All Governments which were in power
in the Centre were opposed to changing the status quo in which the MHA has
total control. The possibility of an alternate architecture with dual
supervision had never been examined. The time has come for examining this.
The recent incidents of violence in New
Delhi in the wake of the gang-rape
incident highlighted the lack of sophistication in crowd control by the Delhi
Police. Public were shocked by the crude manner in which the police officers,
including the women police, handled women protesters. They used the same
high-handed techniques against men as well as women. There is a need for a
total revision of our crowd control techniques relating to men and women, in
order to make them more sophisticated.
( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd),
Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director,
Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate of the Chennai Centre For
China Studies. E-Mail: seventyone2@gmail.com . Twitter: @SORBONNE75 )
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