The Hindu : The surrender of Sharma

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 30, 2002

Opinion

Opinion - Editorials

The surrender of Sharma

THE SURRENDER OF R. K. Sharma before a Haryana court brings the curtain down on at least one act in the dramatic and much publicised Shivani Bhatnagar murder case. The suspended IPS officer has been evading arrest since early August ever since the Delhi police declared that he was the mastermind behind the conspiracy to kill the former Indian Express correspondent. As Mr. Sharma made repeated (and unsuccessful) attempts to get anticipatory bail, the murder was given an altogether different spin with his wife levelling all manner of allegations and claiming that he was the innocent victim of a high-level conspiracy. With Mr. Sharma finally turning himself in, the investigations into the murder case can proceed to the next and vital step — the interrogation of the police officer. If he has anything to say which points towards the possibility that he is a victim of a frame-up, then surely this is the appropriate place to say it. It was farcical to witness the sight of a senior official like him evading arrest for over two whole months and using this period to speak to the press through the mouths of his stressed and unsettled family.

What led Mr. Sharma to suddenly turn himself in? The most persuasive explanation would be the increasing futility of remaining concealed. His hopes of receiving anticipatory bail were dashed, his pleas for a CBI probe into the murder were rejected and his attempt to shift the focus of the investigation away from himself had failed. More importantly perhaps, the Delhi police had begun to turn the screws on the senior police official in an oblique but forceful way after persuading the court to allow them to initiate the process of declaring him a proclaimed offender and attaching his property. Over the last fortnight, the police had begun attaching his properties in different places. These included the apartment he owned in Mussoorie and some movable assets, including a car, from his residence in Panchkula. Clearly, the costs of remaining at large were proving to be more and more counter-productive for the police official.

With Mr. Sharma now behind bars, it is up to the police to complete their investigations as expeditiously as possible and lay a chargesheet in the case. Shivani Bhatnagar was murdered in January 1999 and the reason why it has taken the police so long to identify and apprehend the suspects is altogether another story and one which still remains something of a mystery. Mr. Sharma's guilt or innocence is something to be established only by a court of law. However, one of the things that the Shivani Bhatnagar murder case has focussed attention on is the increasing criminalisation of the police force. The available evidence suggests that more and more members in the police force are getting directly implicated in acts of a serious criminal nature such as murder, kidnapping and rape. Moreover, an increasing number of senior-level officers are being accused of such crimes than ever before. There are a complex host of reasons for this extremely disturbing trend, but quite clearly one cause for such criminalisation is the fact that the system makes it extremely difficult to take action against senior police officials suspected of wrongdoing. We operate in an environment which is designed to insulate police officials from the law. The tardy progress of the investigation in the initial stages and the sensational nature of the allegations once Mr. Sharma was identified as the prime suspect reflect the nature of the difficulties which attend attempts to bring senior-level police officials to book. Now that Mr. Sharma is where the police want him, it is the responsibility of the latter to back up their claims with the kind of evidence that is sustainable in a court of law.

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