by Team
Two incidents, a day apart, show the police in two states, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra, in poor light. They failed to uphold a basic precept of modern governance — only law enforcement agencies have the power to detain and question suspects and investigate crime, and they must also do so only according to due process. Last week, policemen in these two states appear to have acted at the behest of the mob. On July 25, the Chhattisgarh police arrested three people, including two nuns, on charges of forced conversion and human trafficking. Reports in this paper have raised questions about the neutrality of the law enforcers in a situation rife with tension. Instead of calming tempers and probing the charges, the Chhattisgarh police drew up their FIR almost entirely on the basis of statements of Bajrang Dal members. One of the women at the centre of the row later admitted she was coerced by a member of a right-wing outfit to give a statement against the accused. A day after the Chhattisgarh arrests, a group of around 60-70 people, several of them allegedly belonging to the Bajrang Dal, barged into the house of a Kargil War veteran’s relative in Pune, demanded identity proofs from the family, and called them Bangladeshis. The police personnel present at the site participated in the humiliation of the family by taking them to a police station in the dead of the night.
The Supreme Court has, on several occasions, underlined the dangers of mob vigilantism. But whether in cow protection cases or in matters related to religious conversion, or now in the increasingly contentious issue of illegal migration, law enforcement agencies show a disturbing tendency to let self-proclaimed community leaders take over. The Pune incident reportedly occurred after a “tip-off” about Bangladeshis in the city. The role of the Bajrang Dal in this episode — as well as in the conversion-related arrests in Chhattisgarh — points to the same worrying tendency of the state law enforcement apparatus ceding vital space to vigilantes.
On more than one occasion, including in December last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has underlined the contributions of the Catholic community in social welfare. Instances such as the episode in Chhattisgarh pose question marks on that outreach. It’s also a cruel irony that at a time when members of all political parties are applauding the valour of the armed forces in Operation Sindoor, a war veteran’s relatives were targeted with impunity. The police in Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra have much to answer for.
This story was originally published in indianexpress.com.