Close The Case..!
“Inspectorji, Assistant Commissionerji is on the line!”
“Have you closed the case?”
“Sir it will be done in a day or two!”
“Close it today!”
“Yes sir!”
And in the office of the assistant commissioner:
“Sir, call from home minister!”
“Have you closed the case?”
“It will be closed soon sir!”
“Close it immediately!”
“Yes sir!”
Much has been written about the Aarushi Talwar murder case, where over enthusiastic UP cops closed case after making grieving father the murderer.
What went wrong?
“Sir, Mayavati on the phone!”
“Have you closed the case?”
“Madam it is an open and shut case,” says the IG.
“So shut it fast and close it tight!”
“Yes madam!”
Hey Mr Top Cop, ever thought of ‘solving’ a case?
“Solving?”
“Yes solving, like in clever detective work, investigation, good forensic studies?”
“That could take time! We have to close case fast or get transferred!”
I served once on the board of an NGO which did yeomen service for prisoners in jails and their rehabilitation when they stepped out: Jimmy, a young, but poor Parsi boy came out of prison and worked for me a few years ago.
Jimmy tried to steal a bike in Pune to pay off his dead father’s loan:
He got caught and went to jail. A policeman visited him. “Sign these papers and we’ll get you a light sentence!” Jimmy looked at the papers, “It’s a confession stating I stole eight motorbikes, but I’ve not done that!”
“We haven’t been able to close those cases. Sign or we’ll start the treatment!”
He signed out of fear and spent two years in jail.
Jimmy was never the same again: I liked the boy but knew jail had scarred and changed him for life. He could con people well and felt no remorse doing so. Jail schooled him to become a petty criminal.
Also, the real thief or thieves of other seven bikes remains free.
That’s what our police force allows today, when their only focus is to close case; actual murderer roams free, while innocents are charged.
“So Policemanji what’s happening in Delhi?”
“We closed the case! CBI is solving it!”
Let little Arushi’s murder be a wake up call for you and me to protest such slipshod handling, or it’ll happen like Dr Talwar we’ll find ourselves inside, “But I’m innocent!” you scream. “Can’t help it madam, we have to close the case!”
If the police could convince the whole nation that doctor dad could stoop to kill beloved daughter in cold blood, rest assured nobody will hear your cries as you languish inside high stone walls..!
Please do give your response to this article in the ‘comments’ section below
i agree with you here that the police must stop giving priority to the statistics that they will generate by closing the case and rather pay attention to solving the case. Political interference and pressure must be forcing them to close the case asap. However I would also blame the media for putting on pressure on the police department for giving out information as they want to be the first to have given the masses the breaking news and if no details are leaked then the media turns against the police department and slanders their name. The police officers too are expected to have a press conference with the media like they is done in the US. It is wiser for the police department to just do ones work diligently and have a separate department to handle the media and other inquisitive and interfering bodies. The Arushi Talwar case was a shame on all of us, not just the UP police.
Even though the CBI have closed the murder case of Aarushi and Dr. Talwar has been released, there has been no clear-cut evidence cited in the press, based on information given by the CBI, if any, on the modus operandi of the so-called murderers. This is probably another example of the popular adage, ” When money speaks, truth is silent”.
Dear Robert,
Do not be too harsh on the individual policeman. The system has been allowed to become totally corrupt. The spectre of transfer looms large. Good police officers are brought to heel by the threat of separation from their roots. Where else in the world are the men of the force so ruthlessly manipulated?
A New York cop works to keep crime down in his city; the London Bobby will do his best for London. Here? Not so.
There is a real case to be made out for disabling the ability of the politician to ruin the life of a potentially good officer, which continually kneads the souls of good men, until they, like all the rest of his kind, become malleable and manipulable.
That is no excuse, of course!
But we have very finally swirled into this vortex that seems to take us ever deeper into this situation. Heroes are few and far between; role models are scarce. … and mostly on the screen.
You of the Press still seem to have a few precious years of relative freedom left. Use it, or lose it!
Brother Bass.