Skip to content Skip to navigation

Lock down or lock up! Brimful misery for commoners

New Delhi: The nation wide lock down is more a reign of terror and less a measure to keep a virus at bay if a section of the observation of a country's legal fraternity is to be believed.

Be it in the case of police excess or the absence of essential commodities, the 21 days Pan India lock down seems to have been crushing the spine of millions of the people living in abject penury across the nation life never before. 

The worse has yet to come. This has forced a New Delhi based lawyer to write to the Chief Justice of India for immediate intervention before the situation goes from bad to worse.

Here is the letter of Gaurav Jain,  the lawyer, who has been relentlessly confronting with a set of  "anti people" policies, for the last couple of years. 

Gaurav Jain, lawyer
Gaurav Jain, lawyer 

---------------------------

To,
The Hon'ble Chief Justice of India,

I am Gaurav Jain, an Advocate enrolled with the Bar Council of Delhi. And as an officer of the court, I consider it my duty to bring to your notice a grave Injustice happening at this very moment on such a massive scale that if left unchecked, it will grow so big and scary, that it will be extremely difficult to contain it later. It's only the 3rd day of the pan-India Lockdown and if we do not act now, more people will succumb to this evil than Corona Virus in the remaining 18 days.

The evil I am talking about is : Police Brutality.
In their over-enthusiasm to strictly enforce the "janta-curfew" and now pan-India Lock-down, police officers, of almost all states and UTs, are mercilessly beating people they find on the road without first asking - even once - the reason why they had to step out of their homes.

Many people, involved in the essential services have to bear the brunt of this callousness and heavy-handedness of the police. It so happens that most of these people are from the lower-middle class and the class below it.

Agreed that the lock-down has been declared by the PM to take on the COVID-19 Pandemic and it's important that everyone cooperates for it to succeed but that does not give Police the license to resort to such barbaric cruelty and unleash such shocking violence on people who may have very genuine and pressing reasons to be out.

By swinging its Lathi before even hearing the other person, the police may succeed in enforcing this lock-down but it will also succeed in demolishing the Rule of Law, the Principles of Natural Justice and people's fundamental right to live with dignity. I don't think you can ever let this happen.

And here's a basic question: what's the point of publicly beating, even killing, someone to 'save' him from Corona Virus? Reports are surfacing that a person from West Bengal has died after allegedly getting beaten up by the police. His crime : Stepping out of house to buy milk.

Hundreds of videos which are mushrooming on social media demonstrate the blood-curdling brutality of police being unleashed on ordinary people all over India. The intensity and scale of this violence is shocking, which cannot truly be described in words. And that's why I thought it wise to attach a small sample of videos with this mail so that you can see it yourself. (please find annexed Six Twitter video links)

What will truly shock the conscience of the court - it did shock mine - is the fearlessness and utter nonchalance with which these police officers are going about thrashing people. To do so in these times and age when there is a camera in every person's hand, one really needs to be completely convinced that there would be absolutely no consequence to one's actions.

While I certainly don't want a coward police force, I definitely want this much fear in their hearts that they know that if they commit a crime and that crime is captured on camera, they WILL have to face severe consequences; more severe than an ordinary person.

This 'virus' of violence has infected virtually all police forces across India, and the officers deployed on the ground are in 'serious condition'. There is a need to immediately sensitize them on what role they have to play as a responsible public servant, before they lose all perspective and cause irreparable loss of human-lives and state's credibility.

Therefore, I would request you to take suo-motu cognizance of this extremely critical matter. You are humbly requested to urgently issue strict orders/directions to the Home Minister of India, all Chief-Ministers and the DGPs/CPs of Police Forces of all the States/UTs to warn their officers on ground to immediately cease and desist from unnecessarily beating people in the streets and resorting to any cruelty during this lockdown period. They should also be sensitized about their role and explained the importance of kindness and empathy.

Sure, sometimes police is constrained to use force/violence but if found involved in any incident of brutality or unprovoked/disproportionate use of force, the officer will have to face steep financial as well penal consequences. I leave it to the wisdom of Your Honour to include things in the order so that a strong deterrence can be created for these errant officers who see a global emergency as an opportunity to unleash their evil side of personality.

So far, our judiciary has led India's fight against coronaVirus. And therefore I am extremely hopeful that you will, once again, come to the rescue of millions of innocent poor and middle class people who are not only up against a deadly virus but a brutally violent police force. Usually police is their first line of defense. But in this case, you are their first and probably the last hope.

Cordially,
Gaurav Jain
 

Comments

Dr Krishna K Prasad's picture

Yes, it is happening, but will such a ruling by SC really work in the present pendamic situation and too amidst the present arena of unprecedented unique sort of power game ?

Pages

Add new comment

Other Contents by Author

GUWAHATI:The Board of Secondary Education, Assam on Tuesday has as announced the schedule of the High School Leaving Certificate Examination, 2018. The examination will take place from February 18, 2018 which will conclude on March 19 across the state. The state secondary education board will only admit black ink this time.
HOJAI: Two IAS aspirants from Assam in New Delhi have received a huge encouragement when the Ajmal Foundation announced the duo as the beneficiaries of a scheme meant to help the civil service aspirants. Shoma Roy, a local resident of Lanka would get a financial assistance from the organization to pursue coaching for the civil service examination. The engineering graduate is preparing for the examination in New Delhi. Another beneficiary is Shama Parveen, who hails from Dhakuwakhana in Lakhimpur. Both they received the assistance at a brief function in Hojai on Monday.
GUWAHATI: A forest official engaged in the massive eviction drive in the Amchang wildlife sanctuary sustained serious injury when an evicted person attacked him with a sharp weapon on Tuesday. The clash took place in the morning when the huge joint team of forest department and district administration resumed the drive to evict the illegal settlers. As they started demolishing a house the owner had an altercation with the forest official who was busy with his assigned task defying the resistance. Suddenly, the owner of the house attacked the official with a sharp weapon. He was rushed to the hospital and the owner was arrested.
GUWAHATI/DIPHU: Amid a mammoth security arrangement, the eviction drive resumes for the second consecutive day on Tuesday triggering an escalating protest. The huge joint team for forest department and Kamrup metro district administration reached the Amchang wild life sanctuary at 7 in the morning and started demolishing the huts one after another where the illegal settlers kept living in. "We would be able to evict all unauthorized settlers by Wednesday. We wont look back. We have permission from the Gauhati High Court. Please understand the reality and allow us to act accordingly," said a forest officer as he was hounded by the evicted people in Botahghuli area in the morning. On...
NEW DELHI:The Centre has announced a new expert committee to decide on the fate of the controversial mega dam at Gerukamukh along the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border. Comprising ID Gupta,Prabhas Pandey and PM Scott, the three member committee will examine in detail the previous committee reports apart from holding discussions with the stakeholders in the downstream areas before submitting the report within a period of three months. The Centre has announced the panel acting on the directives it received from the National Green Tribunal which has been taking up a set of petitions challenging the mega dam construction by NHPC apprehending an ecological disaster in the downstream areas in...
DIBRUGARH: In a major setback for regionalism in Assam's political landscape, the Asom Gana Parishad is splitting with a group of the regional party leaders and workers floating a new faction. A huge gathering in Dibrugarh stood united in Dibrugarh on Monday with a vow to prop up regionalism without any deal with the national party. Speakers after speakers in thr open meeting came down heavily on the Asom Gana Parishad leadership accusing them of destroying the regionalism only for personal aggrandisement. Dr Dinesh Baishya, the chief guest urged the breakaway faction of the regional party to concentrate only for the region--it's people and resources. He said regionalism only will help...
  NAMRUP: A leopard cub was found dead in Namrup which was believed to have been killed during a fight between two tiger on Monday. Tea garden workers spotted the lifeless cub under the tea bushes in Hapjan Estate in the morning. The body which was rushed for post mortem bore injury marks in neck and head. Later in a statement Namrup deputy ranger Pranab Kalita also doubted a fierce fighting of leopards where the cub died in attack. Leopards often keep coming down from the Joyepore reserve forest to the human habitats and tea gardens in search of food.
GUWAHATI/KOKRAJHAR: Financial help and support are pouring in for Angkushita Boro a day after the 17 year old pugilist from Dhekiajuli struck gold in the AIBA's youth women world boxing championship on Sunday.  The Assam government has announced ₹10 lakh for her while AGP has paid her a cheque of ₹2 lakh. Former chief minister PK Mahanta has promised her one month's salary. On the other hand, BTAD chief Hagrama Mohilary will felicitate her with ₹5 lakh at a huge public function at KDSA stadium on Wednesday. BTC sports department has already announced  ₹2 lakh just before she went to the ring to take on her Russian rival.  Rajya Sabha MP Biswajit Daimary,UG Brahma, ex-...
GUWAHATI: There seems to be no respite for Nishamoni Deka as the Gauhati High Court on Monday refused to grant anticipatory bail for the ACS officer who is on the run. Hearing the anticipatory bail plea, the high court straightly rejected it and asked the special operation unit probing the APSC scam to submit the case diary by December 15. Earlier, Deka moved a plea before the Special court to grant her anticipatory bail citing her two month old baby. When rejected, she moved the high court which upheld the ruling.   Deka along with another accused ACS officer have yet to be arrested by the police in connection with the APSC scam where they along with 23 others resorted to forgery...
GUWAHATI: Even an escalating protest across the state can't halt the massive eviction drive if Pramila Rami Brahma is to be believed. Talking to reporters in Guwahati on Monday the forest minister said at any cost the illegal settlers must be evicted from Amchang, Karbi Anglong, Lakhimpur where forest department and district afminustrations are jointly running the drive from Monday. "We will stop the drive only after freeing the government plots. Why should we stop half way," said the minister.   Amid mammoth security arrangement, the Kamrup district administration and forest department started evicting the illegal settlers from 7 in the morning deploying...