Times When Delhi Police Worked Against The Constitution And Law & Order

Commonly called the government pleasers, Delhi Police’s contribution to some major democratically wrong incidents like the Jamia Milia Islamia students case, the CAA NRC protests, the Delhi violence or the now protest turned revolution of the farmers. And the most intriguing part about this is the fact that for the police brutality, as can be recalled from various incidents happening even right now, the government doesn’t seem to bat an eye on it. After all, isn’t it the government’s job to maintain law and order? I guess that job keeps changing from situation to situation, or maybe religion to religion.
Today, by the medium of this article, I share with you a few instances when the Delhi Police not only acted unethically but also worked against the law and order. Instances when the same saviours of law became the disrupters of it.

1. The Delhi police’s inaction or action during the December 2019 protests against the government’s problematic Citizen Amendment Act, clearly stated the police’s exemplary contribution in the handling of the protest and preventing violence against the citizens, including women and children. We all could know about the tragedies via social platforms thanks to social media and mobile phones because had it been left on the National media and their sources; we would be watching some new conspiracy somebody’s creating against somebody.
2. The recent events of the farmer protests while the people were stopped from entering the Delhi border by throwing in tear gas shells and seeking permission to convert a public place into jail to hold the farmers show the level the police had stoop down to. Even if they include pelting stones in broad daylight to old, aged farmers peacefully sitting on the roads or letting in goons to brutalise and torture people. Or maybe participating in that torture themselves? How is it that water tankers are not allowed to go beyond a barricade point while goons are? Is starving them of water a feasible move? God bless our humanitarian rights. The last few days witnessed brutality by the police on multiple grounds and the government seems as unbothered as ever
3. Even students and minors don’t go free from the police’s brutality. Recall the December 2019’s Jamia Milia Islamia library incident where we saw the CCTV footage of police personnel entering in and beating students left and right with lathis and canes. Simply the fact that how can you the police watch while students are being beaten up? When their own men are being thrashed and still they are not able to do anything?
4. Nearly three weeks after the Jamia Milia library attack, the Delhi Police was shunned again, but this time for “inaction” when masked mob went on a rampage in the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus. The mob reportedly thrashed students and teachers and students alleged that they had called the police multiple times but received no help and not even a single person has been arrested in the case so far.
5. The communal violence that broke out in North-east Delhi during anti-CAA protests. There were videos of police acting as nothing but spectators. The stones were being pelted and people were rushing around for their lives but what did the police do? Simply, nothing.
6. The clash of November 2019 at Tis Hazari Court complex when lawyers thrashed Delhi Police officers. There was a parking row between the police personnel and lawyers which ended up in violence and arson at the place. There were several adversities in the clash with at least 20 police personnel and many lawyers being injured. Many vehicles were also damaged during the entire incident. There were also allegations by the lawyers claiming that the police fired at them.The same incident soon took a political turn, with questions on Home Minister Amit Shah’s ability to control and direct the protesting police officers. The Delhi Police reports to the Union Ministry for Home Affairs which further brought forward Amit Shah’s failure to deal with the disputes and handle the issue amicably without a public spectacle. The Congress called out the party by calling the entire episode as a “political failure” of Amit Shah.
7. Personnel Dismissal: In 2018, the Delhi Police dismissed 61 of its own police personnel for indulging in corruption, extortion, nexus with criminals, crimes, faulty investigation and misbehaviour. These terminated people included three inspectors, 11 sub-inspectors, and six assistant sub-inspectors.
8. The Supreme Court slammed Delhi Police for ‘Unprofessionalism’ in Shaheen Bagh protests: The judges expressed their opinions stating that the problem is lack of independence and professionalism in Delhi police. The judges also gave the example of the United States and the United Kingdom where the police forces there act independently and swiftly whenever there is a problem. Justice S. Muralidhar also slammed the Delhi police commissioner for not watching incendiary videos of Bharatiya Janata Party. He also played the clips in the courtroom.
9. The case of Faizan Khan is also an appropriate example of the pattern followed by the Delhi police. They have been alleged for incriminating random persons in Delhi riots cases after exaggerating remote links with the incidents. The arrest of Faizan Khan and this approach of Delhi police in many cases related to riots have also been questioned by the courts. All this reveals a terribly casual and awed approach followed by the Delhi police in arresting and detaining people under the UAPA in many cases. In the case Firoz Khan v State, the Delhi high court denied to consider the statement of a police constable who claimed to be an eye witness the act of burning down a shop during the communal riots. The court made special emphasis on the following fact. The informant stated that he had contacted the police control room at the time his his shop was being burnt down. He said that there was no immediate response from the side of the police. The court wondered and catched an astonishing fact that why would the informant contact the PCR if the police constable (who claimed to be the eyewitness) was present at the spot. The court also raised questions on the idea that how could the police pick up only Firoz out of an alleged unlawful assembly of as many as 250-300 persons.

Well, we can say that the same people who had the responsibility to save the law and protect the people against the bad have now resorted to being the ones causing harm to the society. Be it being spectators while violence is breaking out or itself being a part of it, the Delhi Police has sometimes in the recent history of India’s capital become a threat to a certain section of the society or even the society as a whole.