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Police apathy comes to the fore

By Nirnimesh Kumar

NEW DELHI JUNE 22. Arm the Delhi Police with the harshest of laws, it will lead to nowhere. What is required is punctilious following of laws and procedures to make them effective and deterrent. But it seems for the city police what matters is display of brawn than brain. For them, apparently, the job of seeing a particular case to its logical end matters less than seeing the culprits behind bars and hogging the limelight for the moment.

A duty magistrate at the Patiala House courts here today waited through the day for an investigating officer of a murder case to formally seek extension of judicial custody of two accused in a murder case. When neither the investigating officer nor the Station House Officer (SHO) of the Najafgarh police station -- under whose jurisdiction the crime allegedly had been committed -- appeared before the court all day, an exasperated Duty Magistrate (MM), S.S. Rathee, ordered release of the two accused blaming the city police's staid behaviour for the judicial farce. The Duty Magistrate passed a detailed order sequencing the facts and circumstances which led to unwarranted release of the two accused.

``No officials of the Najafgarh police station have appeared before the court in connection with the case. It is now 5 p.m.. It is reported that lock-up in-charge had even contacted the SHO over telephone but neither the SHO nor the investigating officer cared to appear before the court,'' the Magistrate said. ``Since there is neither application or any material of the case before this court seeking extension of the judicial custody of the two accused, this court has no option but to order their release,'' the order said. The Magistrate also observed that it seemed the SHO or the prosecution was not keen to seek further judicial custody of the accused. The case is as recent as of this past July when Babita and her paramour, Surender, had allegedly burnt to death the wife of the latter to pave the way for their marriage.

Surender's wife, Bimla Devi, had earlier been married to Surender's elder brother Anoop Singh. A few years after the marriage, Anoop Singh died. A little after the death of Anoop Singh, the family members of Surender married him to the widow of his elder brother which set Babita and Surender on a revenge course leading to the killing of Bimla Devi.

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