Delhi Police more interested in cricket than saving women from sexual assault and rape?

TechnoparkToday.com >> It seems that there is a nearly fanatical industriousness from the Delhi Police in the IPL spot fixing case. I wonder how hard it would have been for them to keep such fervour under check in some of the other socially relevant issues. Women and children were being molested left, right and centre in the National Capital Territory, the culprits going about their business unrestrained; left blaming right, right blaming left and all blaming the centre and at the centre of it all, the Delhi Police. And amidst all this societal psychopathy, it takes truly remarkable restraint to make oneself appear apathetic.

So was it really apathy that consumed Delhi Police or was it stark ineptitude? The hoo-hah over the past few days, cornering cricketers on to a spot and pressing ludicrous charges on them with no concrete evidence whatsoever, backing up such actions with asinine and convoluted accounts, gives the whole episode the inglorious tang of a cover-up.

The spot fixing drama is brimmed with wrongful conduct at several different levels. There is a matter of morality and ethics involved. There is a matter of national security. There is an issue of bias and worst of all, an issue of unlawful persecution or victimization. Players willingly taking part in fixing is a matter of personal and professional ethics, all the same it is not a crime. There isn’t much to be commented on that.

However, it takes a whole new dimension if the ultimate beneficiaries of the proceeds of such activity are terror groups. At present, it is only an allegation in the spot fixing case. Granted that it is a matter of national security and needs prompt and unbiased investigation and if the charges can be proven with unequivocal evidence, the guilty should be brought to justice, even so that is no reason to detain people.

What is going on at present is nothing more than a senseless hype created by sensationalist media and the Delhi Police banking on it to rinse off the taint of inefficacy it garnered earlier. The justice system seems to be biased when it comes to granting bail to the accused. What is really agitating and dubious is the fact that the big fishes involved in the case, who are accused of dealing with bookies, have all been bailed out while one player has been charged with un-bailable ludicrous charges. What has Sreesanth done differently from other players to be treated like a terrorist? How do you rationalize charges like MCOCA?

Perhaps its my ignorance and I will be happy to be corrected, but I feel this is absolute absurdity and unacceptable in a democracy. Lets imagine that a friend of yours introduces you to a car seller who has an ultra-luxury car to sell at a throw away price. You are told that the car was given to the seller by a friend of his who won it from his own father in a legal battle that was morally skewed. So the money made from the sale will go to the seller’s friend. You proceed to buy the car as it is a steal despite the moral conflict within your head. Now, if the seller’s friend has another friend who in turn has friends with connections in the under world and the monies ultimately end up there, how would you know that? Are you a terrorist in that case? Will you come under MCOCA? Will the Delhi Police keep bugging your phone until the proceeds reach the terrorists so that they have evidence that can be produced against you? So they can arrest you and put you in jail while having absolutely no power to touch the dons or their accomplices. And the seller of the car and his friends are bailed out and roam around freely. To me, invoking MCOCA against Sreesanth sounds pathetic!

The primary function of the Police is to prevent lawlessness and protect and enforce law. The job of bringing out sensational stories with masala bits for ‘infotainment’ has already been taken. It is being resourcefully done by the media. Here the Police appear to have nothing better to do other than doing the job of an investigative journalist.

Apparently, Delhi Police spent thousands of hours listening to telephonic conversations of the players and ‘bookies’ and many more hours in analyzing and interpreting those. What a marvelous job guys! Now that explains where the energy and efforts are being spent, rather unwisely, and the lack of bandwidth in curbing real crime that matters to the average Indian.

Do you not realize that while you were busy tapping into the privacy of players, purportedly to unravel spot fixing that means nothing to the average Indian, lunatics around the country were busy tearing down the souls of our sisters? Do you not realize that the capital territory of the Indian Union, shamed as the rape capital, turned into a slaughterhouse right under your watch? Shambolic!

So now the question is whether Delhi Police is banking on the sensationalism created by the spot fixing drama to cover up its shameful inefficiency that became apparent earlier? Or are they genuinely indifferent when it comes to matters of less sensational crime? In either case it will be the Indian citizen who suffers and many more like Sreesanth victimized.

By Gopi Nair