The Hashimpura case verdict is unfortunate but not unexpected. If you read the Uttar Pradesh CID case diaries carefully, you will agree, that the way the case was made out against the officers of the Provincial Armed Constablulary (PAC), it would not have been easy for any court to pass a harsh verdict against them. As witness to the whole incident from the very beginning, I can say that the investigators were trying to save the murderers from day one.

When the officers of the PAC abducted 42 Muslims from the Hashimpura area of Meerut on  May 22, 1987 and brought them to Ghaziabad where they made them stand between two canals and shot them dead, I was posted in Ghaziabad as Superintendent of Police (SP). The incident took place at 9 pm in the night. I got the information about it around 10:30 PM. I can never forget what I saw that dark night at the Ganga canal — one of the scenes of the crime, when I reached there with other officers.

Trying to weed out dead bodies from among the wild shrubs along the banks of the canal, on the blood stained ground with the dim lights of our weakened torches on that night on Delhi Ghaziabad border. Making sure not to trample on a human body, dead or alive, measuring each step carefully. That gruesome memory is vividly etched in memory. Like a not to be forgotten horror movie.

We met Babuddin there, the only survivor of this hideous act, who informed us about the Hashimpur massacre. In some time we came to know about the other spot of the crime, around the Muradnagar Canal, where the PAC vehicle had been taken to throw out the murdered dead bodies.

I gave orders to file an FIR in the context of both the incident (spots), but in just a few hours, the investigation was snatched away from me and handed over to the Crime Investigation Department (CID). Under normal circumstances none would have questioned this decision as the CID has more resources and could have conducted a better investigation. But in this case, that didn’t happen.

The CID investigation was halfhearted and lackluster from the start, every move made to save the culprits. For the last few years I have been working on a book on this massacre, and have come across mind boggling facts and evidence. Knowingly, the CID ignored significant facts and leads in evidence. Specially, they have overlooked the involvement of the army and have conveniently forgotten to investigate the mastermind behind the massacre, that my evidence reveals, was a BJP Politician. I will substantiate all these points, in detail, in my forthcoming book.

Hashimpura is the single largest incident of custodial killing since independence. This incident is different from the 1984 Sikh Riots and the Nelli Massacre (1983) because here, not only were those who were murdered in the custody of the police but they were also murdered by the police. The Police had never gone to this extent earlier.

India’s honor is at stake. If the murderers cannot be punished in such an instance of brutal mass killing then all our claims of India being secular are vain and shallow. There is a need for this case to be reinvestigated by an independent agency under the supervision of a High Court or the High Court needs to nominate three retired IPS officers for independent investigations. Without a thorough re-investigation, we can neither reach the actual culprits who have been given a clean chit by the CBI nor can the law reach to those culprits who’s role needs to be uncovered in any meaningful investigation.

Vibhuti Narain Rai, retired IPS
 

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The recent happenings in Gujarat have raised many questions about various institutions of the Indian State. After the demolition of the Babri Masjid, it is these happenings that have posed the greatest challenge to the basic values of our Constitution. It is only values like the spirit of tolerance, respect for the point of view of others, even–handed treatment of all sections that ensure the existence of a progressive and modern Indian nation. All those who are concerned about the continuation of a democratic dispensation governed by the rule of law have had their faith in the State severely shaken by the pogrom against the minorities in Gujarat.

While Gujarat has raised many issues, I will deal with those pertaining to the police force. As a police officer, I have always felt that my primary objective should be to try and put my own house in order before pointing fingers at others — the political class, the civil administration etc — however culpable they may also be.

• The incidents in Gujarat are not unique. The law enforcement agencies have shown their apathy and callousness towards the performance of their primary responsibility of upholding the Constitution in riot after riot. The objective of the Constitution is the creation of a society where all citizens, irrespective of religion, caste, class and gender will enjoy the equal protection of the State, can be realised only if institutions like the police behave in an impartial and fair manner. Unfortunately, this premise has been demolished repeatedly by the actions of the police.
• The crying need for police reform has been repeatedly ignored by all sections of Indian society that matter. It is only very rarely that senior politicians, bureaucrats, members of the judiciary, teachers, writers and other people involved in decision–making or in the formulation of public opinion deliberate on issues related to police reforms. I feel that this question of reform is intrinsically linked with remedying the problem raised in the earlier paragraph.
• On every  occasion that the police have failed in their primary duty, whether in  l984, when thousands of Sikhs were massacred all over the country, or in 1992 when the mosque in Ayodhya was demolished in full view of tens of thousands of policemen, commissions set up to enquire into these incidents have always indicted the police for their partisan behaviour, their deliberate inaction in providing protection to the lives and properties of the minorities and their criminal involvement in violent and murderous attacks and looting of property. But the sections of society mentioned earlier have never made sustained and concerted efforts to bring the guilty to book and award them exemplary punishment. If criminal actions on the part of those who are entrusted with the mandate of fighting crime go unpunished then what hope is there for the maintenance of law and order and the ensuring of justice?

At its meeting in Srinagar, Kashmir, in l968, the National Integration Council had recommended that the onus for the breakout of communal rioting should rest squarely on the shoulders of the district magistrate and superintendent of police who should be punished if a riot occurs in their area of jurisdiction. Punishment being meted out to a government functionary, be it a police officer or a magistrate is, however, a rare exception to the rule.

Unless we make it dangerous for the police to behave in the way that they did with some honourable exceptions in Gujarat, each repetition of such behaviour will become more and more outrageous until the very fabric of our society is rent beyond repair.

As far as I am concerned, the most effective way to ensure the containment of communal violence is to institutionalise this doctrine of responsibility and culpability of those in charge of the government machinery. Police action is the first state intervention in a situation of rioting and therefore the role and behaviour of the police is of the utmost significance in either instilling confidence in those who are being attacked or in destroying it.

There are voluminous reports and recommendations on the subject of police reform. The need for sensitisation of the force, changes in recruitment patterns to increase the representation in the force of members of minority communities, ways and means to preserve the independent functioning of the police hierarchy and implementation of norms in transfer policy are all very important components of this agenda. However, the punishment of erring officials and those who commit crimes of dereliction of duty, murder, loot and collusion during times of communal conflict is the first priority as far as I am concerned.

There is absolutely no justification for these offences to be treated any differently than they would in normal circumstances. In fact, they should be treated with greater severity when they are committed at a time when the constitutional mandate of the police personnel concerned is to protect the minorities and to behave and act in a manner exactly opposite to what is being resorted to.

Unless we make it dangerous for the police to behave in the way that they did with some honourable exceptions in Gujarat, each repetition of such behaviour will become more and more outrageous until the very fabric of our society is rent beyond repair.            

(The writer is a senior IPS officer).

Archived from Communalism Combat, September 2002, Anniversary Issue (9th), Year 9  No. 80, Partisan police

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