On September 4, in Lucknow, an irate mob lynched to death a carpenter Shivakumar, who had allegedly kidnapped, molested and killed a child. That Shivakumar was under police escort when beaten to death speaks volumes. When the child’s parents initially went to the police station to report the missing case, they were advised to search locally. After they received a phone call about their missing child, they again went to the police who traced the call to Shivakumar.

A few days later, in Vaishali in Bihar, ten persons were killed by villagers suspecting them to be dacoits. Indeed, they were thieves as revealed by a surviving member of the gang. The villagers had earlier reportedly approached the police station, situated only a kilometre away, to complain against increased thefts. Their plea had fallen on deaf ears.

During the same week, in another Bihar village, the eyes of three suspected criminals were gouged out by a mob. In Borax of Rajasthan, panchayat members stripped 500 male members of the village naked in order to detect a case of rape and murder of a woman. Prima facie, it appears that people are losing faith in the criminal justice delivery system, looking at the way people are taking the role of the police and the judiciary. 

Whatever little faith people had about the police is slowly getting eroded because of the unresponsiveness of the police to their needs. Most common, public grievances are that complainants are not given immediate attention; they are made to run from pillar to post even when they bring complaints of serious offences; if at all a case gets registered, the culprit is not quickly apprehended; if the culprit gets caught, he comes out on bail; police do not inform the complainants about the progress of investigation etc.

It is commonly believed that criminal trials take a long time to complete. In only about 40 per cent of the cases, the accused gets punished. It is felt that even in such cases the punishment is not exemplary. When a notorious criminal Shintre was recently killed in a police encounter in Belgaum, many womenfolk of that town on TV expressed that the encounter death was justified since Shintre had continued to kill women despite many convictions in the past.

Two other recent events mirror public opinion. When film stars Sanjay Dutt and Salman Khan were sent to prison, there was almost jubilation. When a Bombay Court enhanced the punishment of a person who killed several people in a road accident, the action was welcomed.

There is also an opinion that in our prisons, criminals are given “royal” treatment and many continue to operate from jails. The recent finding in Dharwad jail where a notorious criminal was possessing cell phones, money etc is a case in point.

There exists a wide gap between the police and the people and it needs to be bridged. It can happen only if the policemen are proactive, become more transparent in their functions, and keep the public involved in their work. Police reforms as ordered by the Supreme Court, when put into practice, will go a long way in bringing police closer to the public.

The prison department all over the country faces terrible shortage of not only manpower but space which results in improper supervision over criminals. This needs to be addressed. We may also think of separate jails for convicts and under trials.

Vacancies in courts need to be filled and computerisation of all criminal courts will go a long way in speedy trials. The reforms in the criminal justice system as suggested by the Malimath Committee need to be implemented early. The Supreme Court in 1996 had recommended that trials pending for more than two years of offences whose punishment is less than two years be dropped. Some such measure is called for to ensure speedy trials.

One of the important reasons for loss of public faith in the criminal justice delivery system is the role being played by the electronic media. News channels, by repeatedly airing instances of public taking law into their hands, are subtly giving a wrong message that such action is justified. In fact when news about a Delhi teacher forcing her students into prostitution was aired by a channel, irate mobs attacked the said school.  It subsequently turned out that the story was totally false.

The father of a Mumbai child, who was recently kidnapped and killed, blamed the electronic media for the child’s death. The media needs to be more responsible and guarded. What is very revealing is that all instances of people taking law into their own hands have been reported from areas where literacy levels are low. With education, such instances may come down, but we cannot wish away reforms in all components involved in criminal justice delivery system.

(The writer is a retired IPS officer.)