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Rathore is only the latest in
Haryana police’s crowded hall of shame
WSN Bureau
 Chandigarh: With
evidence mounting about the manner in which former Haryana DGP S P S
Rathore used his position to evade the law for 19 years after
allegedly molesting Ruchika Girhotra and harassing her family,
everyone is aware of how the police in Haryana has just got a bad
name again.
But why should
the Sikhs be surprised? They have seen the ugly face of the Haryana
Police in 1982 when in the run up to the Asian Games in New Delhi,
the then Congress CM Bhajan Lal had publicly claimed that Sikhs will
not be allowed to pass through Haryana. Sikhs were assaulted in
buses and trains in thousands by goondas of the ruling party and the
Haryana Police. There was no resistance to the politician's dictates
to insult and humiliate the innocent citizens of their own country!
Haryana is now
courting a coveted place in the hall of shame. Rathore is one of the
three DGPs in the this hall of shame. Unlike Rathore, the law caught
up with the other two much earlier and they had to spend time behind
bars.
Former DGPs
Lachhman Das and Ramesh Sehgal were both arrested — the first for a
fake encounter killing and the other for allegedly accepting a
bribe. Haryana cadre IPS officer Ravi Kant Sharma was sentenced in
the murder of The Indian Express journalist Shivani Bhatnagar and is
in Tihar Jail. Another IG, Harish Kumar, was booked in a smuggling
case of which he was an alleged beneficiary. Two other IPS officers,
Anil Dawra and M S Ahlawat, were jailed for misleading courts.
It is a long
list of officers who misused their uniform but these names stand out
because of the senior positions they held in the police force:
 * Ramesh Sehgal
was allegedly caught red-handed by Vigilance personnel while
accepting a bribe from a businessman to extend the parole of a
convict. Sehgal, and later Ravi Kant Sharma, landed in the same
Ambala Jail which was under their command when they were IG (Jail).
Sehgal was also accused by his colleague V N Rai of large-scale
bungling in police recruitment.
* Lachhman Das
was arrested by CBI and had to go to jail over the fake encounter
killing of Jitender Pehal. Pehal’s mother moved the
Punjab
and Haryana High Court which ordered a CBI probe into the killing.
Another IPS officer, Ved Prakash Verma, also landed behind bars.
* Harish Kumar
was heading the National Crime Records Bureau when Excise and
Customs officers searched his premises and booked him in a smuggling
racket. It was alleged that nickel containers were being shown as
scrap to evade duty and he was deeply involved.
* Anil Dawra and
Sham Lal Goyal, who were posted in Hisar, had to go to jail on
orders of the court in a case involving a dispute that Anoop
Bishnoi, son-in-law of former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal, had with a
Kolkata firm.
* Another IPS
officer, M S Ahlawat, was also jailed for misleading the court
during his stint in the Railways.
 Former DGP P C
Wadhwa said these officers, especially Rathore, “deserved exemplary
punishment” for giving the khaki a bad name.
“The fault lies
with the system. A majority of these officers acted as pawns in the
hands of their political bosses. Since politicians use them for
their own benefit, they allow them freedom and they go berserk. I am
ashamed of their acts. How can you accept a bribe in your office?
How can you drive an innocent girl to commit suicide? And how can
you get a lady killed because you feel threatened? All of them,
especially Rathore, deserved exemplary punishment. This should be a
lesson for other officers,” Wadhwa said.
Former DGP
(Prisons) Vikas said: “The problem is deep rooted in politics. Chief
Ministers form opinions about officers on the basis of their own IAS
and IPS coterie. They are always presented a biased picture.
Politicians exploit the weaknesses of such officers, they use them,
overlook the files of misdeeds. The life of a young man (Ruchika’s
brother Ashu) was made hell, spoilt completely. There is a long list
of those who created this situation but no action. I don’t think
there is scope until the reform process is implemented with
political willpower.”
Clearly, the
Indian political paradigm lacks that will power.
20
January 2010
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