Chennai: During the last three years, as many as 1,70,248 complaints were received against the police throughout India and during the same period, till December 31, 2013, the courts had convicted only 142 police personnel across the country. In 2013 alone, there were 51,120 complaints from the public against police personnel in the country, while 53 were convicted during the year.
In Tamil Nadu, 259 complaints were received in 2013 and only one was convicted.According to home ministry statistics, of the more than 1.7 lakh complaints received, more than 50 per cent – 86,305 complaints – were disposed of in the preliminary stage as these were found to be false. “It is almost impossible to get a complaint registered against the police because we have to approach the same department where they are also working.
The crimes committed by the policemen against members of the public are looked through the eyes of human rights commission. If the same crime is committed by an ordinary person, it is treated with IPC sections. If a policeman kills a suspect, it is described as an act of self-defence, if an ordinary man commits murder it is a severe crime. Why are the killings of policemen not taken under IPC 302? There should be a separate national agency and judicial system to handle complaints against policemen,” said A. Kathir of Madurai-based NGO, Evidence.
Though the court conviction rate is less, the department had initiated action against 71,885 police personnel in three years and dismissed 1,857 during the same period.
In 2013, action was initiated against 24,217 persons in khaki out of which 1,126 were from Tamil Nadu. In the same year, 564 police personnel were dismissed or removed from service – of this, 29 persons were from Tamil Nadu.
The number of complaints against police personnel has come down from 61,765 in the year 2011 to 51,120 in 2013. But the number of persons against whom departmental action was initiated had gone up from 23,948 to 24,217 during the same period. In Tamil Nadu, of the total 259 complaints received, only 13 were marked as false in 2013, while all over the country, of the total complaints of 51,120, as many as 26,640 were marked as false and disposed of during the same period.
