Killing of Apple techie by trigger-happy, corrupt UP police raises many questions
The cold-blooded murder of a young Apple manager by trigger-happy and corrupt cops in Lucknow raises many questions about the quality of governance in India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh.
The incident also throws light on the “Wild West” brand of justice that prevails under the regime of the saffron-clad Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath, who has often been held responsible for what is called “Encounter Raj” in the state. His bid to control crime by adopting mediaeval measures has led the cops to turn into cowboys, who only shoot to kill.
38-year-old Vivek Tiwari, who looked after the marketing and sales of Apple in Lucknow, was returning home, after a late-night launch of the latest model of the iPhone on September 28, when he was beckoned by an intimidating cop to stop. Following a common advisory to avoid stopping a vehicle late at night, the techie did not consider it wise to pull the vehicle to the side, especially since he was accompanied by a woman colleague, whom he was dropping home. But it was just that what cost him his life — the insolent cop chose to pull out his gun and fired a bullet through the windscreen into the young man’s face, leaving him dead.
The techie’s colleague Sana Khan, who was the only eyewitness to this cold-blooded killing, is yet to come out of shock. But she distinctly remembers how Vivek tried to manoeuvre his XUV to move away from the cop’s motorbike parked in the middle of the road, blocking his path. But before he could do so, the angry cop’s bullet had left him in a pool of blood.
Far from living up to Yogi Adityanath’s much-touted claims of instilling the fear of God in the minds of outlaws who have long enjoyed a free-rein in the lawless state, this incident has only inspired terror of men in “khaki” among the common citizenry.
They are stuck between the devil and the deep sea, should they have to face a situation like what Vivek faced on that fateful night. If he had stopped, there was every risk of being, not only being manhandled and possible extortion and injury, but there was also the risk of his co-passenger getting molestated by the cops. After all, who hasn’t heard of such harassment by cops on duty at night?
“I do not think criminals fear the police; they are usually hand-in-glove. It is the common citizen who has far more fear of the police and perhaps no respect for men in khaki”, observed a senior citizen, who had served as a Lucknow University professor for decades. Way back in 1960, a famous judge of the Allahabad High Court judge, Justice AN Mulla had said in a judgment, "I say it with all sense of responsibility that there is not a single lawless group in the whole country whose record of crime is anywhere near the record of that organised unit which is known as the Indian Police Force."
The judgement finds repeated mention by the top judiciary over the years every time cops are caught indulging in such misdemeanour. Even former Supreme Court judge, Justice Markandey Katju, who has had a long experience both at the bar and bench of Allahabad High Court, states on his Facebook page, “The people of India, through their own bitter experience, have learnt about most of our policemen's misbehaviour — demanding 'hafta', doing fake encounters, refusing to lodge an FIR or conduct a proper investigation unless money is paid, custodial deaths, torture in custody, etc.”
Though this was not the first time that one has heard of the police shooting down someone for not stopping his vehicle on being beckoned to do so, the difference one must note here, is the arrogant body language of the guilty cop. Even his wife, who also happens to be a police constable sought to play the victim along with her husband, who was busy claiming that he had used his gun in “self-defence”. He even went to the extent of alleging that, “The XUV driver was clearly intending to kill me by running over my motor-bike.”
What is shocking is that initially, even his superiors were ready to buy the guilty cop’s alibi. Had it not been for constant hammering by the media, perhaps the Lucknow district police chief would have happily echoed his cop’s view. It was only after the intervention of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who personally spoke to both chief minister Yogi Adityanath as well as director general of police OP Singh, that a case under Section 302 was registered against the trigger-happy cop Prashant Chaudhary.
Lucknow, of course, happens to be the parliamentary constituency of Rajnath Singh; thus it proved difficult for him to remain a mute spectator.
Sure enough, both, the CM and the DGP, have now dutifully condemned the incident and have assured action against the “guilty”. With the obvious view to placate the victim’s grieved family, the government has also announced an ex gratia of Rs 25 lakhs as “compensation,” together with a clerical job in Lucknow Municipal Corporation for the wife of the techie who was a high-paid manager in the world’s top mobile phone company. CM Adityanath has also generously offered to transfer the case to CBI, “if the family so desired.”
However, what one continues to wonder is whether the chief minister is ready to do some rethinking to his policy of encounters that had clearly given an undesirable impetus to trigger-happy policemen, who generally believe that they can get away with murder — literally. The tendency has manifested itself in the 1600-odd encounters carried out by Yogi’s cops over a span of 12 months, leaving about 67 dead. Significantly, a large chunk of these were small-time outlaws, who were made “big” by announcements of handsome bounty over their heads, shortly before they were gunned down.
Many BJP insiders believe that the encounter initiative was brought to life to create an impression that the government was actually serious about improving law and order, which was as precariously poor as under the Samajwadi Party regime. The fact of the matter, however, is that heinous crime continues unabated with rapes on the rise. Ironically, what continues to remain on the chief minister’s priority list was “love-jihad”, “cow-slaughter” and “anti-Romeo squads”.
Meanwhile, the insolence of men in khaki seems to have grown with the passage of time.
From their acts of omission or commission, it has become increasingly evident that cops exist only to serve the privileged class and not the common man. Remember, in the infamous Unnao incident where a helpless father of a gang-rape victim was lynched to death inside the police station, cops looked the other way because the oppressor was the ruling BJP MLA. It was only after the incident hit the headlines and the High Court took suo motu cognisance of the horrific developments, that the state government spluttered into action.
The common tendency, among those sitting in positions of power, is to defend the indefensible. The rogues among the khaki-clad often get the undue patronage of their superiors, who invariably remain in denial mode when it comes to such insolent or corrupt behaviour of their subordinates.
This malaise can be tackled only if the government were to follow the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court in consonance with the Prakash Singh Police Reforms Committee’s recommendations.
One of the key recommendations was to separate the law and order functions of the police from investigations. A renowned top cop who headed the UP police as well as Punjab police in addition to BSF, Prakash Singh, had explicitly called for an independent investigation agency. And that recommendation was duly ratified by the apex court more than five years ago.
But successive state governments chose to turn a deaf ear to it. The result is obvious — in a case like the murder of Vivek Tiwari, the investigation will now be carried out by his own colleagues, doubling as investigators-cum-enforcers of law and order.
And who can deny that blood is thicker than water?
Hence, it would be of no surprise if the investigators find subtle ways to protect their comrade-in-arms. No wonder such cases often find their way to the CBI, which despite erosion, continues to enjoy some reputation of objectivity as an independent investigation agency.