Cops in the Dock

The image of your law-enforcer is plummeting. A TOI-TNS poll shows that the police arouse distrust, even apprehension, among the very people they are supposed to protect.
Maybe that's why people are approaching the media before going to the police. Sahil Zaroo, who became embroiled in the Mahajan-Moitra heroin saga, was one such case: He found it necessary to give himself up to the Delhi police after first giving a statement to a TV channel.
Such suspicion and lack of confidence in the force is also found in a cross-section of law-abiding, taxpaying citizens, as the poll proves.And why not? Everyday the pages of newspapers are filled with cases being chased by the police that eventually fall flat.
Terrorist or mafia links are claimed, drug dealing is alleged, international gambling is proclaimed...but the end result is that nothing or very little is proved and chargesheets are not filed or watered down.
Were the allegations and evidence trumped up in the first place so pressure could be put on high-profile accused to gain unofficial favours? The question begs asking. Or maybe political compulsion is the culprit.
The media, of course, unwittingly becomes a conduit as it carries news of the high-profile arrests and allegations. But when Bharat Shah's alleged mafia links can't be proven, or Pota charges against a Mohammed Afroze are dropped, or a bar dancer is accused of being involved in international cricket betting, the public turns sceptical.
Hence, the huge distrust mirrored in the poll. Meanwhile, the increasing incidence of rape by policemen only stokes the embers of public anger. And what about custodial death? Does anybody still remember Khwaja Yunus?
Welcome to the dark side of the force, where our law-enforcers' credibility takes a serious drubbing. STOI postmortems some high-profile cases.
Manipulating Evidence
Provogue: It was supposed to be a high-profile cocaine bust in Mumbai. Salil Chaturvedi, owner of the Provogue Lounge bar, was arrested for allegedly possessing 3 grams of the white contraband. The powder was supposedly seized from a bathroom in his house, taking everyone, including Chaturvedi, by surprise.
But the Chaturvedis yelled foul play and alleged that it was a "plant". The police raid immediately came under a cloud. Chaturvedi told the media, "I only wonder how I could keep a 3-gram vial of cocaine in such a clean bathroom, and that too near the washbasin."
The judge criticised the police chargesheet which claimed Chaturvedi was part of an international ring that sells cocaine. The judge said that excepting the 3-gram seizure, prima facie there was no other evidence in the chargesheet against Chaturvedi.
Of the few visitors to the Provogue Lounge who could be traced, none spoke of the availability of the drug either in that or any other bar. Two Tanzanian drug dealers, Sayyad Juma Hashim and David Abdullah Lukanga, were arrested and cocaine seized from their homes. But no evidence could be collected to show even a remote nexus with Chaturvedi.
While the police tried labelling Chaturvedi as the kingpin of an international drug cartel, they could not establish his nexus with even one of the seven other people arrested in the case, including two policemen.
The judge released Chaturvedi on a personal bond of Rs 50,000, but by then he had already spent 34 days behind bars.Jessica Lall: The Jessica Lall case, in which the accused walked free, also gave rise to accusations that the police had manipulated evidence.
They allegedly weakened the case to such an extent that almost no evidence was presented to lock up the accused. There was no real attempt to seize the murder weapon, which would have nailed the main accused.
Most importantly, the police did nothing to prevent the relatives of the accused from allegedly replacing a cartridge seized from the crime scene.
Mumbai lawyer Waris Pathan gives one damning indication of how cases can be manipulated — the same petrol pump owner has been used as a witness in four separate cases.
These cases are as different as the Bharat Shah, Gulshan Kumar, Sara-Sahara and Ajit Dewani murder cases. "This is ridiculous and speaks volumes of how policemen manipulate cases," Pathan said.
Big and false allegations
Tarannum: In 2005, bar dancer Tarannum was booked for betting on cricket matches. She was said to be a Dawood Ibrahim crony, have links with a Sri Lankan cricketer and be part of an international terrorist organisation.
All this helped keep her behind bars for two months. The police, amazingly, used Section 66 of the Information Technology Act, which deals with hacking.
At the end of two months, the police were unable to file a chargesheet, so the judge released Tarannum on bail. Eight months later, they put together a watered-down chargesheet which accuses her of hacking and gambling — neither being a major offence.
Tarannum had even been called a swindler, but the cheating charge was eventually dropped, perhaps after the police realised that all she did was wager a few thousand rupees on a cricket match.
Critics say the case typifies the hamhanded manner in which the police approach a high-profile case — or turn a routine case into a high-profile one. They overlook the circumstances and context and promise far more than they can deliver.
In the bar dancer's case, the cops supposedly had a list of 157 coded names, allegedly of bookies, which were expected to provide leads to a betting ring. But the chargesheet did not specify any information connected to the list.
Afroze: In the sedition case involving Trombay resident Afroze, which sensationally cropped up in the days following 9/11, human rights activist P A Sebastian said the cops were unable to justify the grounds of arrest. The stringent anti-terror law, Pota, was applied and then dropped.
An expensive investigation that involved sending police teams to the US and Australia to prove that Afroze was part of an Al Qaida plot ended with Afroze being acquitted of "waging a war against the country". He was convicted of the lesser IPC charges of criminal conspiracy, conspiracy to wage a war between nations and forgery.
Bollywood Bait
Bharat Shah: It was the biggest case of its kind. The police claimed to have uncovered a link between the wealthy diamond merchant Bharat Shah and India's most wanted ganglords who are currently holed up in Pakistan.
The police even claimed to have a tape of a phone conversation between Shah, who financed Bollywood films, and underworld don Chhota Shakeel.
But the tape was never played in court and the case, which gripped the public's imagination from December 2000 onwards, fizzled away in September of 2003 when Shah was found guilty of a lesser charge — concealing information regarding the underworld links of co-accused Nazeem Rizvi.
Shah himself was found not guilty of having underworld links, but by then he had already spend 14 months in jail. He had done extra time, as the sentence for concealing information was one year.
"The police have lost credibility over the years. Cases are badly put together and do not show proper application of mind," said human rights lawyer Vinod Shetty referring to the Shah case.
Long Harm Of The Law
Hitting out: The widespread belief that the police are a lathi-happy bunch was proved after they attacked striking workers in Gurgaon and charged peacefully protesting medicos in Mumbai.
Be it industrial unrest or peaceful marches, the police are at the receiving end for going over the top in situations they are supposedly trained to handle.
Rape after rape: The rape of a teenager by Mumbai constable Sunil More at the Marine Drive police chowky on April 21, 2005, also completely shattered public faith in the police machinery. The girl and a friend were sitting on the rocks near the seafront when they were asked to go to the chowky.
While a drunk More kept the boy outside the chowky, he locked the room and raped the girl. The incident not only sparked an angry mob to tear down the chowky, but also shamed an entire police force.
For nearly two months after the incident, several cops staying in private residential colonies said they were embarrassed to even speak to next door neighbours.
Perhaps this shame propelled the police to ensure a watertight case this one time: More was dismissed from service and sentenced to 12 years in prison. But the punishment meted out to him hasn't revived faith in the force, as the poll shows.
And while another Mumbai cop, head constable Chandrakant Pawar, awaits judgment in the case involving his alleged rape of a ragpicker, on Thursday a Delhi sub-inspector was arrested for raping a girl in her rented flat in Rohini.
PSI Krishan Vallabh Jha allegedly barged into the flat of the 23-year-old complainant, sent her partner Rajkumar out on the pretext of arranging a Rs 50,000 bribe, consumed alcohol and raped her.
Cases Falling Flat
Last month, the police ate humble pie in a case involving the son of an industrialist. Manish Khatau, 21, was acquitted by a court of serious charges — voluntarily causing hurt to a government servant and attempt to murder — after the police decided to forego accusing him of rash driving, a lesser charge.
Since rash driving is involuntary, it couldn't be clubbed with the greater charges. Khatau had driven into a police barricade, injuring a constable, while returning from a party. The judge found that the witness testimonies did not tally.
The Rahul Mahajan case, is perhaps, even more curious. After coming out all guns blazing — the cops stopped just short of naming him an accused in the Vivek Moitra tragedy — the case now seems to be in tatters with officials tying themselves up in knots with all the different pieces of evidence.
Legal experts said cases often fail to stand the test of a court's scrutiny due to inadequate homework in framing charges. Exaggerated charges and failure to follow procedure, especially when special laws like MCOCA are involved, lead to the courts giving the accused the benefit of doubt.
Point-Counter point
Criminal lawyers are accustomed to dealing with either the far-fetched or watered-down claims of the police. "It is typical of the police to make huge allegations against a person without having sufficient evidence to back their claims," said Pathan.
But Mumbai police commissioner A N Roy has maintained that his men have done a "professional job" in the cases mentioned — including the Provogue, Khatau and Tarannum cases. Advocate Majeed Memon has a different opinion though.
"On several occasions, the police show a desperation to arrest — especially if the accused is a high-profile person."