Bhagalpur, a district in Bihar state, has once again shot into notoriety for public violence. Yesterday, a mob lynched three persons at Ratanpur Bazar area of Bhagalpur. The victims of this violence belong to two rival extortion syndicates of the locality, who fired at each other to settle a dispute. A woman was injured during the exchange of fire. This provoked the local people to gather into a mob and lynch three members of the gang.
Bhagalpur is a town that has its reference even in Vedic literature. Ms. Kadambini Ganguly, the first female doctor in South Asia, is from Bhagalpur. Rabindra Nath Tagore, the first non-European to be awarded the Nobel Prize worked on Gitanjali, a collection of poems that won the prize, while he stayed in Bhagalpur. Yet, Bhagalpur in contemporary India is the embodiment of social disorder resulting from lawlessness.
For instance in 1980, police officers in Bhagalpur poured acid into the eyes of 31 undertrials thereby blinding them. The officers were not punished, whereas those who lost their eyesight were paid a mere Rupees 500 (USD 10) as ‘monthly compensatory allowance’. In October 1989, 116 persons, including women and children of Logai village under the jurisdiction of Jagdishpur Police Station were murdered and buried in a mass grave camouflaged by a cauliflower plantation. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), in a communal riot targeted the victims, who were mostly from the Muslim community. The court took 17 years to complete the trial, and convicted the accused, including two police officers, in June 2007. By then, of the 24 accused, six had died and four absconded.
In August 2007, the world once again witnessed the barbarity of the Indians, when the electronic media televised video clips showing a suspect being dragged around, with his legs tied to the rear end of a motorcycle driven by a police officer. The police officer had obtained possession of the victim, Mr. Salim, from a mob that was about to lynch him at Nathnagar in Bhagalpur. The National Human Rights Commission of India, after ordering an immediate investigation said in its report that the incident displays the barbarity of the police in the country.
Bhagalpur is however not the only place in the country, where rules of the street thug are adopted by the police to dominate the society. Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh state is an example. According to reliable information, crimes are committed in the district mostly with the connivance of the state police officers and their corrupt political masters. Police officers of varying ranks are associated with underground gangs engaged in illegal narcotic trade, human trafficking, prostitution and counterfeit currency rackets. Lethargy of the district and the state administration in addressing this problem, worsen the situation.
For instance women, particularly young girls, are trafficked into Varanasi from various parts of India and neighbouring countries like Bangladesh and Nepal. In Varanasi they are kept in brothels in and around a place called Shivdaspur, where they are taught the “skills” of the trade. This trade cannot survive without the knowledge and connivance of the city police. The human rights organisation, Guria, attempted in the past to work with the city authorities, particularly the District Magistrate who is mandated to prevent human trafficking. However, its efforts were in vain.
On receiving a complaint, the Magistrate would direct the police to assist Guria in rescuing women and children from brothels the group had identified. However, by the time the activists arrived at a brothel with the police — who often turned up only after hours or days had passed — there would be no women or girls there. After several such attempts, Guria tried to locate the “leak” in the chain of information. As expected, it was from the police or those associated with them at the District Magistrate’s office.
Embarrassed and frustrated, Guria tried to carry out its own rescue, after informing the police but not waiting for them to act. One such operation was carried out in October 2005, with every step documented on video by the media to expose the culprits. Sufficient precautions were taken to safeguard the privacy and anonymity of the women and girls rescued. The police did arrive at the scene once the operation was over, only to arrest Guria’s volunteers and the rescued women and children. The police registered false cases against the volunteers, which included students, teachers and human rights activists.
While dozens of complaints by Guria went unregistered at the city police station, a single phone call from one of the most notorious pimps in the locality, named Rahmat, fully mobilised the police to arrest Guria’s volunteers. Guria is still fighting the case. The police came under immense pressure from national and international human rights groups to arrest Rahmat, but he threatened to divulge his links with the police and other “important” people in the state if any action were taken against him. As expected, Rahmat was shot dead within weeks, outside the city by the police.
Police-criminal nexus has reduced the police in India to the status of street thugs. The criminal justice system in the country is crippled with inabilities. The politicians who control the state government require the law enforcement agents to remain the most notorious lawbreakers. Impunity provided to the crimes committed by the police appears to be the part of a planned strategy to misuse the police to serve the corrupt interest of the politicians. In addition to the fear generated from the use of violence by the police, the judiciary of the country has also proven itself incapable of being any assistance to the ordinary people like in the Logai massacre case. It is natural in these circumstances for the ordinary citizen to lose faith in the system.
Instances similar to the Bhagalpur incident are reported from many parts of India recently. Legal norms and standards make no sense when the means to implement these standards do not exist. What is believed to be a legal framework, in reality is only a façade. Hypothetical arguments like the world’s largest democracy, public-spirited apex court, unity in diversity are not substitutes for functioning institutions.
The increasing number of anti-state activities within the country is the result of this farcical state of affairs of the country’s justice systems. Weak institutions and sporadic acts of mob violence is the prelude to India’s seemingly inevitable destiny of self-destruction. Institutional inability to guarantee the rule of law only benefits extremist and fundamentalist forces. India’s neighbours like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal have travelled in this direction quite far.
The possibility for change in India rests in the complete overhaul of the criminal justice system, starting with the police. There must also be an emphasis to the control and prevent corruption. The Government of India must act without any further lethargy to correct the deep-rooted problems affecting its criminal justice dispensation system, or else the country will soon capsize into such chaos from which a recovery will be difficult.
