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MP police are beating people on streets and the CM and media are okay with it

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Kumar Shakti Shekhar
Kumar Shakti ShekharJul 07, 2016 | 23:29

MP police are beating people on streets and the CM and media are okay with it

In the wee hours of July 4 in Bhopal, two journalists were returning home after office when a police patrol accosted them. The police asked why the journalists were on the street so late. The journalists explained.

The policemen, visibly drunk, did not bother with their answer and showered them with the choicest Hindi abuses followed by a thrashing. Then they took the journalists to the police station and beat them some more. Their ordeal came to light in the morning.

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The cops were suspended the next morning and after public outrage an FIR was registered against them three days later.

In a state often claimed to be an island of peace, how have law enforcers come to become the law unto themselves? What has made the police so high-handed that they threaten to slap common citizens with anti-terror laws, or eliminate them by branding them as SIMI activists?

Madhya Pradesh politicians, particularly chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, and to a large extent, a section of the local media need to do a lot of introspection and explaining now.

Photos: 1. The two suspended policemen, accused of thrashing journalists. 2. One of the two journalists, injured by police beatings, is lying on a hospital bed.

This was not the first time that policemen in the state had unlawfully handled a case.

Perhaps they were inspired by Bollywood flick Singham in which a police officer delivers “justice” to criminals on the streets.

On scores of occasions earlier, the Madhya Pradesh police would beat criminals in full public view, parade them on the streets after tonsuring their heads and putting garlands of footwear around their neck. According to a report, over 50 such incidents had taken place in just one month in 2015.

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But the local media, if not applauding this behaviour by the police, would often condone them. It would report these acts with glee, instead of condemning and criticising them.

Since the footage would often be dramatic, the national media would pick up the issue, but then the matter would die down. This obviously has encouraged the policemen and such incidents have gone unabated. The common citizen would believe they were safe because their policemen were "local Singhams".

The biggest shocker came when none other than chief minister Chouhan himself justified the treatment being meted out to suspects in-custody by policemen, clearly working outside the limits of law.

Once, he told Indore Police, “laaton ke bhoot baton se nahi maante (these crooks listen to beatings, not to advice)”, urging policemen to support officers who were targeting the criminals.

The trick may have served its purpose. This did work in shaming and demoralising the criminals.

But at what cost? At the cost of encouraging the police to resort to extra-judicial methods to deal with law and order problems?

However, egged on by Chouhan and a voyeuristic media, ever ready to lap up sensational stuff, boosted the police’s morale to break law with impunity.

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The result is for all to see. The two journalists kept pleading with the policemen, but to no avail, as the policemen were too high on power and liquor.

You can hear in the audio how the victims never lost their civility even in the face of such barbarism and verbal abuse. This was recorded by one of the victims. (CAUTION: Do use headphones and DO NOT click if you are sensitive to abusive language.)

The audacity of the errant policemen can well be imagined from the fact that they refused to turn up for duty despite the superintendent of police summoning and himself waiting for them in the police station. The policemen were clearly trying to avoid getting medically examined.

Politicians, and parts of the local media, have watched this Frankenstein’s monster grow in Madhya Pradesh and have ignored its excesses. The chickens have come home to roost in the state now.

Last updated: July 08, 2016 | 13:41
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