Indian laws are framed in such a manner that those responsible for their enforcement can convert them into money-making machines, irrespective of department. A review of the recent case where a Delhi police officer, known as an "encounter specialist", was killed in Gurgaon by a property dealer reveals this and also the authorities' tolerance of nefarious activities.

The accused surrendered to the local police. Apparently, the police officer went to meet the property dealer, instructing his security men to stay behind. Incidentally, he used the police vehicle to travel out of his jurisdiction for his private work. The killer, who has confessed, has offered the motive that the murdered police officer had given him money to invest in properties. Butt the investment had sunk and the dealer was not in a position to return the amount. The amount is variously pegged at anywhere between Rs 40 lakhs and Rs 95 lakhs.

The truth of the amount invested by the policeman, and its source, will never be actually known. It is impossible for an officer to earn so much money honestly. He had joined as sub-inspector, and rose to the level of deputy superintendent in the Delhi police. If the killer is to be believed, the weapon used was provided by the policeman himself. But now it emerges that the weapon was lost in an encounter and has now surfaced in this murder.

The killer says that the policeman had threatened him with death if the wasn't returned. He added that he wanted to commit suicide to escape the debt, but was persuaded by his family not to do so. So according to him, it was either his life or the life of his creditor, who had headed many death squads.

The policeman was a highly decorated officer, who was involved in life and death encounters with many criminals. But if previous complaints that involved him in property disputes and the present case are put together, an unsavoury picture emerges of a policeman using his office for private gain. The "encounter specialist" is not the only one allegedly amassing wealth. Another Delhi police ACP-rank official had absconded but was later arrested by the CBI for his alleged attempts at extortion.

In 2004, as many as 7,755 Delhi police personnel were punished in departmental inquiries for corruption and various other crimes. Among these were one assistant commissioner of police, 63 Inspectors, 1,385 sub-Inspectors, 724 assistant sub-inspectors, 1,569 head constables, 3,570 constables and 54 Class 4 employees the support staff. Punishment included dismissal, forfeiture of service, reduction in rank and pay and withholding increment. In departmental proceedings, 2,312 were punished and penalties imposed during 2001. In 2002, 1,972 were punished.

Unfortunately, the delay in the criminal justice system is not conducive to quick punishments or acquittal of the innocents, as the following figures show. There are 2,276 long-pending cases investigated by the CBI awaiting trial. While 244 have been pending trial for over 20 years, the remaining 2,032 have been gathering dust in different courts for over 10 years. In all, 8,297 CBI cases are awaiting trial after completion of investigation.

Sadly, criminalisation is not confined merely to corruption in the financial sense. There is ample evidence of increasing police deviance, as can be seen from the reports of incidents of brutality, murder, rape, grievous hurt and other cases by policemen. Cases of infringement are not confined to mere flouting of departmental regulations or indulging in peccadilloes, but to committing the most heinous crimes, like rape, dacoity, extortion, money-laundering and murder. It is not merely police personnel of lower ranks involved, but high-ranking officers as well, as can be seen from the Telegi stamp scam, in which top police brass were named, as well as the recent conviction of an IGP for the murder of journalist Shivani Bhatnagar.

A DG-level officer of Bihar is under investigation for possessing assets worth over Rs 60 lakhs along with a number of IAS officers and district magistrates of that state. A former Punjab director-general of police has been suspended and chargesheeted by the state government for allegedly buying "benami" property.

Criminalisation of the police cannot be delinked from the same malaise in the political arena. It is the criminalisation of politics which has produced and promoted a culture of impunity that allows the police to get away with sins of commission and omission on the basis of caste and "connections".

There is no smoke without fire. The allegations, leave aside indictment, reveal the culture of abuse of political power for surviving in office. The powers that be, thus, are tolerant of the same vices in the police and other branches of administration.

Corruption is not a monopoly of any political party. No political party can say it has not patronised the corrupt and criminals and given them a certain degree of respectability. They denounce it publicly, but accept the same privately. The induction of chargesheeted ministers in government, headed by one of the cleanest politicians in India, only confirms what has been public knowledge for several decades.

In the present Parliament, as per affidavits filed, at the time of contesting elections, 100 out of 543 members of the present Lok Sabha had cases pending against hem. In other words, it means that almost every fifth member of the Lok Sabha has cases pending against him or her.

It is futile to pin all blame on the police. In the words of a former commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police, Sir Robert Mark: "The police is the best reflection of a society.

If the society is tolerant, literate and humane, the police will act accordingly." There are big speeches on police reforms, and debates on police commission reports, committees, but at the end of the day, the result is zero. It is so because in its own narrow, and not national interests, no political party is willing to improve the police and shed its control over it. The government should remember that well done is better than well said.

Joginder Singh is a former director of the Central Bureau of Investigation

 © Copyrights 2006 Asian Age.