B.RAMAN
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.
2.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.
3.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.
4.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.
5.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.
6. 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.
7.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.
8. 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.
9.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.
10. 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.
11.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.
12. 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.
13.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.
14. 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.
15.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.
16. 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.
17. 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. (30-12-12)
( 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 )
