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Police reforms : Apex court rejects plea for more time |
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The Supreme Court has dismissed applications filed by States seeking a review or modification of its Sept. 22, 2006 directions on implementation of police reforms. A bench headed by Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal on Thursday, Jan. 11, turned down the argument that most of the directions could not be implemented because of practical difficulties.
The bench said various committees had suggested police reforms which were pending consideration for over a decade by the apex court. A beginning had to be made to bring about police reforms. The bench said that the directions on setting up central and state security commissions and a fixed tenure for the Directors General of Police and other senior police officers must be implemented in four weeks. For the other directions - creation of a police establishment board and a complaint redressal authority and separation of investigation wing from the law and order wing, the court granted time till March 31. The Centre and the States have been asked to file compliance reports by April 10.
During the hearing of the case, Chief Justice Sabharwal observed that if the states had implemented police reforms, incidents like the Nithari killings near Noida, would not have happened. He said, “if checks and balances were there, Nithari would not have happened.”
CBI takes over Nithari investigation
The CBI at long last took over the investigation of the gruesome killings of children and young women in Noida last week with the Uttar Pradesh Government issuing a notification transferring the case to the agency. CBI Director Vijay Shankar visited Noida and the scene of the crime where the key accused Moninder Singh Pandher and his servant Surendra Koli are alleged to have sexually abused and killed over 20 children and young women.
The CBI has taken the country’s top forensic experts to the site of the grisly crime to probe the killings. Among those who have been moved to Noida are the forensic experts who had examined bones of riot victims found recently in Gujarat’s Panchmahals district. The CBI team camping in Noida has recovered three more skulls and many more human remains near the infamous D-5, Sec. 31 residence of the key accused. CBI sleuths are also looking into negligence on the part of the local police officers who allegedly ignored numerous complaints about missing children.
Meanwhile, a Noida court has given the CBI custody of the two accused for a fortnight.
Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh who visited Noida on Jan. 8 criticised the Congress for what he called utilising the “horrific incident” for deriving political mileage. He said, “Congress president Sonia Gandhi should pay equal attention to other states which top the list of places with most missing children. Delhi leads in this followed by Haryana and Rajasthan.” He also demanded a CBI probe into cases of disappearance of children in other states.
Meanwhile, the Central Inquiry Committee which investigated the serial killings in Nithari village in Noida is reported to have found serious lapses on the part of the police in handling cases of missing persons. The committee is likely to present its report by Jan. 18.
Kids bodies found in Punjab
More cases of disappearance of children and recovery of their bodies are coming to light in other parts of the country. In Punjab, four highly decomposed bodies of children were recovered on Tuesday, Jan. 9 from an abandoned rice mill owned by a former Congress MP and a special invitee to the Congress Working Committee, Jagmit Brar. The bodies are believed to be of children of migrant labourers who had been missing since Nov. 14 last year. The police have arrested a 25 year old man suspected to be behind the killings of the four children.
The opposition Akali Dal has demanded the resignation of Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and referring of the case to the CBI.
In another related development, family members of about 25 people killed at the hands of maxi cab operators in Gurgaon near Delhi have demanded a CBI probe into the barbaric incidents. They alleged that the Haryana Police authorities had failed to solve the case.
Former Haryana Chief Minister and Indian National Lok Dal chief Om Prakash Chautala has urged the Prime Minister to convene an all party meeting to discuss what he called, the deteriorating law and order situation in the county. In a statement issued in Chandigarh on Jan. 9, he alleged that in Gurgaon alone, about 29 people have been murdered in a series of killings and that the law and order situation in the state was very bad.
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