The police inspector adjusts his cap and looks at the trembling prisoner.

“So you say you’re innocent?”

“Yes, sir.”

The inspector sighs.

“What unfortunate timing.”

“Why, sir?”

“Because the crowd has already gathered to watch us beat you up.”

“But shouldn’t the judge decide we are guilty or innocent first?”

“My dear fellow,” says the inspector gravely as he takes out his belt and his men raise their lathis, “judges provide justice. We have to provide entertainment.”

If that opening makes you smile, it should actually make you uncomfortable.

The recent incident in Surat has become a topic of discussion across the country. Five men accused of being involved in a near fatal knife attack were taken by the police to reconstruct the alleged crime. There is nothing unusual about reconstructing a crime scene. Police forces around the world do it. But what followed has left many asking difficult questions. The accused were marched through the locality while videos showed policemen striking them with batons. It was reported that Rajdeep Singh Nakum, Deputy Commissioner of Police of the Surat Special Operations Group, was present during the operation. The police explained that the purpose was to instill fear among criminals and assure the public that the law was acting.

But somewhere in that explanation lies a question that should worry every citizen.

When did the police become the judge?

Our legal system rests on a simple principle. A person is innocent until proven guilty. It is not a technicality dreamed up by lawyers. It is the shield that protects ordinary people from the enormous power of the State.

Today the men in the video are accused of a violent crime. Many may believe they deserve whatever they got.

Perhaps they are guilty.

Perhaps they are not.

That decision belongs to a court, not to a baton.

Because once we decide that the police can punish before conviction, we have quietly rewritten the Constitution without holding a single debate.

Today the cheering crowd says, “They deserved it.”

Tomorrow someone points a finger at you.

A business rival.

An angry neighbour.

A political opponent.

A mistaken witness.

Suddenly you are standing where they stood, hoping somebody remembers that guilt is supposed to be proved, not assumed.

Civilisation is not measured by how we treat the good. It is measured by how we treat those accused of being bad.

The day we abandon due process because it feels satisfying is the day we stop trusting the law and start trusting whoever is holding the stick.

Wake up, India.

The loudest applause today may become tomorrow’s silence when it is your turn to ask for justice.

And if we continue to clap while due process is replaced by public spectacle, one day you and I will not merely be watching the news.

We will be the news.

Just another topic of discussion…!

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