Greed blinding rogue police elements
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: May 07, 2022 -

CIRCUMSTANTIAL evidences, statements of family members and local eyewitnesses all point to the greed and overindulgence in activities beyond their line of duty by sub-inspector Thokchom Jitendra and other police personnel, who are now being held accountable for the death of goldsmith Arambam Nanao.

While actual cause of death could be established after the conduct and examination of the post-mortem report, there is strong possibility that Jitendra and his accomplices acted at the behest of complaints lodged by someone close to the police officer.

On cursory assessment of the video that went viral on social media in connection with the case, thrashing, if any, while in custody doesn't appear to be the only reason for Nanao losing his life.

However, as the goldsmith passed away after overnight detention in police custody there is every reason to suspect that he could have been subjected to excruciatingly physical and mental pain for Manipur police are not known for saintly acts, especially when it comes to extracting information from detainees.

It needs no reminding that excesses committed by security personnel, both central and state forces, is the primary reason for civil societies and people of Manipur vehemently opposing any law that gives unbridled power to the men in uniform.

Thus, Nanao's case has only deepened the apprehension that in-spite of the gradual withdrawal of the controversial AFSPA 1958 from specific districts and pockets, security personnel wouldn't change their mind-set anytime soon.

The incident is not only anti-thesis to the government's pursuit for strengthening the police-public cordiality but also exposed the lack of professionalism among some police officers and personnel.

Apart from brutal acts of security personnel being commonplace during the peak of insurgency movement, there were many instances of police adopting harsh tactics against civilian population as and when someone falls into their hands.

From hand-cuffing of Manipur University professors when they were brought for medical examination after arrest in connection with the agitation demanding removal of the then vice chancellor Prof AP Pandey to numerous complaints from transporters pertaining to unauthorised taxation at security check points along the highways, to name a few cases of highhandedness, some rogue elements have been occasionally causing serious embarrassment to the police establishment.

As such it is imperative that the police authorities do the needful to avoid recurrence of acts indigestible to the public.

It is also equally important that civilians are treated with some sense of sympathy at-least until one's guilt has been established in the law court rather than police acting as the judge.

Taking into account of the possibility that complainants might feed false information to settle personal score and drag someone into jail, police should deal with all cases with tactfulness to prevent controversies.

As conduct of police personnel working at the ground level would be decisive in materialisation of the goal for police-public rapport, there should be no unsavoury conduct by the law enforcement agencies for ignoring public sentiment would ultimately compel one to wonder whether the police authorities areabetting use of excessive force in effecting arrest and treating all suspects as hardened criminals even before guilt or innocence has been authenticated according to law of the land.