It is not the first time the Uttar Pradesh police is found to be in collusion with criminals. Before the Badaun gangrape and murder case, there was Nithari and if one goes back further in time then there was Maliana where in 1987, jawans from the Provincial Arms Constabulary (PAC) opened fire on Muslims during riots and threw their bodies in a canal. Even on the terror front, the state has been found lacking in desire to deal with suspects, making it their favourite breeding ground.
Azamgarh in UP has drawn international attention after security forces caught terror suspects from the area from where the entire Indian Mujahideen top leadership has come.
The malaise that infests UP runs deep. It seems that there is almost zero state machinery present and active in several parts of UP where criminals, terrorists, rapists are having a free run. Then there are wheels within wheels in the functioning of the state machinery, which is seeped in caste politics unlike any other state in the country.
The caste factors play so deep in the state that the politicians and state police machinery alike will lobby behind their community men, or refuse to act against them for fear of a backlash. In turn, the criminals and other organised gangs prove to be the biggest support base and votaries of these local politicians.
In the May 27 Badaun gangrape and murder case, two policemen were arrested for not responding to the calls of family members when they came to their chowki requesting them to look for the two girls who were missing for more than three hours by then. It is open charge of the family of victims that the a Yadav policeman — Sarvesh Yadav — deliberately refused to act against a Yadav accused — Pappu Yadav — in the case.
And then, the ruling Yadav clan of Mulayam Singh in the state didn’t help the matter with comments that at best could have been avoided.
The incident in Badaun is symptomatic of what ails the UP police and its administration as before that, closer to Delhi, in Noida’s Nithari, the local police didn’t pay heed to the complaints of villagers about their going children missing.
The collusion with criminals is not the only ailment from which the state police suffers, many a times the malaise in UP has thrown up a communal colour as well. In this atmosphere, even the efficient police officials are victimised for doing their duty.
At the time Muzaffarnagar riots, the situation could also have been nipped in the bud if the state administration had allowed its officers to work in a non-partisan way. The two officers — DM Surendra Singh and SSP Munzil Sainhad — had caught those Muslims responsible for murdering two Jat youth in Kaval village of the area. But for inexplicable reasons, the state administration transferred them out of Muzaffarnagar, leading to worsening of the situation.
At the time of the July 2008 Ahmedababd serial blasts, it was the Gujarat police that went and arrested Mufti Abu Bashar, a terror accused from Azamgarh, as the state administration was alleged to be reluctant to arrest him.
The state administration needs to treat Badaun as the last wake-up call.
