Police brutality in UP

The picture displayed by TV news channels of an inspector beating mercilessly a Dalit woman, who was accused of mudering her husband in Sultanpur district of Uttar Pradesh, is a brazen act of police brutality. Inspector’s woman police subordinate,who was standing by his side there, was only looking at the brutal act of her boss inside the police station. The accused Dalit lady was called to police station to confess the crime she had committed. When the accused woman had already confessed the crime by giving a statement before the inspector at the police station, what was the need to act by him in Talibani style. The behaviour of the inspector was completely uncalled for and because of his brutal action he has already been suspended and departmental enquiry has been instituted against him. But the act of the police inspector inside the police station reflects very badly on the police functioning. There is no law to empower policemen to beat the arrested person even if he or she is accused of the crime truly. There is law court to try the accused and deliver judgement. The duty of the police is to handover the accused within twenty four of arrest to the nearest court of law. But police atrocity continues to go on without any check in the entire country. It is the credit of media that they have brought the police highhandedness to light. Otherwise, the brutal police behaviour would have gone unnoticed. Though the police inspector has been placed under suspension, the government of UP must institute an enquiry to go into police atrocities in the state. Chief Minister Mayawati claims to be the messiah of Dalit women on one hand and Dalit women have been beaten mercilessly by police officer in presence of woman subordinate inside the police station on the other. CM must take the beating of Dalit woman by police inspector seriously and assure the public that deterrent punishment would given to policemen who take law into their hands wiffully.The police will have to change their mindset and they will have to caste the impression about themselves that they are law onto themselves. The sharp rise in naxal violence is also attributed to increasing police brutalities. Until and unless, our police establishment casts off colonial behaviour, they will never get any co-operation from the common people. It is the brutality of police force that keeps the people fearful of them.There is urgent need to completely overhauling the police establishment all over the country. As police is a state subject, the state government has to act first in this direction. It has been experienced in a number of cases where policemen found to be behaving in a brutal manner and if that is brought to the notice of senior police officers, they put the errant SHOs and Inspectors under suspension for some time. The suspension is revoked after some time and again the same story about the functioning of policemen come to light frequently. The situation in the country demands copmplete overhauling of the police system urgently to make policemen people friendly.