What is now referred to as “the DGP walk”, has brought in a fresh and invigorating air into the usually sullen relations between the civilians and the Meghalaya police in the capital city.
Many people told Highland Post that they were happy that the police were taking such unprecedented steps and some remarked that “never has any police boss walked on the streets of these localities so if this one did, surely it will help break the ice.”
However, there were others who felt that it was a grand PR exercise and little more. Specially mentioned was in reference to a byte shown on one of the popular internet based local news channels where the DGP, L R Bishnoi stops to chat with some youth and asks them, “How are you all?” in one of the thoroughfares of Jaiaw, where two students from Kerala and many labourers got assaulted in the recent past.
Taking off from there, one thought is that, “it would have felt better if the DGP had also visited late surrendered militant, Chesterfield Thangkhiew’s widow and orphaned sons, whose death is a subject matter of a controversial police encounter inside his own home in Mawlai Kynton Massar.”
That incident still rankles across the spectrum of the community, even as the recommendations of the Justice (retd) Vaiphei Enquiry Commission report into this issue is yet to be revealed to the public. The episode remains one of the most explosive incidents, which ranks as the moment of total failure of police relations with the public.
It still simmers till date, and that is why the police chief needs to do far more house-keeping than walk around on the streets of the city where, by and large, people are peacefully living, “barring some incidents which are inevitable as they are symptoms of the larger historical processes and decades old political baggage that have to be dealt with by political leadership constitutionally authorised to do the job” said one of the sources spoken to. So far, evidently this batch has miserably failed if they are now down to sending the cops to do their job, it is said.
The main question is, does police have the trust of the people on a day to day basis? Has the department maintained a clean image? What is their track record?
It was revealed in a reply to Lok Sabha questions recently that Meghalaya Police has nine encounter cases during the last five years. Encounters are usually the worst possible step that any police can take. They have to prove that it was an encounter and not an extra-judicial killing by filing an FIR against the encountered person. But whether this was done or not in the cases of these nine ill-fated persons is yet to be known.
Just this May, it was revealed that Meghalaya Police have 38 custodial death cases since 2012. This was a report handed over to the High Court in another PIL in the Supreme Court on custodial deaths in the entire country. Out of this, 19 were claimed to be natural deaths. These too will have to be supported with documents, post-mortem reports and inquests to prove that they were indeed natural deaths.
The reputation of the Meghalaya Police will remain stained with the allegations of the police-coal-mafia nexus till justice is done for the late sub-inspector P J Marbaniang, officer in charge of the Patharkhmah Police Outpost, Ri-Bhoi district, who was found dead with his brains blown out in his quarters on January 24, 2015 a day after he, in keeping with the National Green Tribunal ban on transportation of illegally mined coal, had detained and refused to release 32 coal-laden truck illegally plying on the Patharkhmah route.
The SIT that investigated the death concluded that it was suicide and arrested four persons for abetment to his suicide, but there were many evidences that he was murdered because he had gone against the nexus, which led his mother to challenge the suicide-stamp in the courts of law. The case is still hanging fire in the Supreme Court but after the death of his mother, it remains to be seen what becomes of this extremely important case.
Meanwhile, it is not yet known what happened to “six FIRs for illegal money collection and corruption against 30 people including government officials and police personnel” which was filed at that time.
The P J Marbaniang case is a reminder that the angle of the coal mafia-police nexus will have to be probed by the new DGP and take cognisance of the many complaints made against policemen, whenever and wherever it is there.
Another case that continues to haunt the public mind is the death of S Balsan while in police custody. The Meghalaya High Court in this case said, “Custodial death is one of the worst crimes in a civilised society governed by the rule of law.”
The case is a horror story of Meghalaya police brutality, but what pours chilly on raw wounds is that the recommendation of the Meghalaya High Court awarding disciplinary action against the police was disregarded by the authorities. Not only that, seemingly he was rewarded, many felt.
Media outlets reported the matter. To quote one of them dated May 2021: “Senior police official Mukesh Kumar Singh, who has been facing disciplinary proceedings for the custodial death of Tura youth, Balsan Marak, was posted as Inspector General of Police (Law & Order). The official was indicted by the Meghalaya High Court for the custodial death of Balsan when he was the SP, West Garo Hills. The court in 2018 had asked the DGP to take disciplinary action against Singh and others. Later, the police official was posted with the BSF at Jaisalmer after he was promoted to the rank of DIG by the state home department. Last year, Singh appeared before the disciplinary committee in Shillong and the mother and friend of Balsan, who had also deposed before the committee, demanded action against the official.”
One could say that the measurement or worth of the police can be calculated only by the number of FIRs the police stations register and pursue, the number of arrests made, the number of investigations and convictions they get from the courts. Meghalaya has a string of murders in its files, particularly sensational murders of women, POCSO cases and complaints against the high-handedness of village authorities and witch-hunting (menshohnoh) cases not to speak of assault (both tribal and non-tribal).
Many spoken to recommended that the 11 biker gang arrested in the recent Jaiaw assault cases should be thoroughly probed to find out their antecedents and verify whether there is an agenda to disturb the peace in the capital, something that has always been suspected even in the past instances which looked like random attacks.
Hopefully with the energy of the new leadership seen in the police department, the “tribal-non-tribal conspiracy theories” and the many FIRs will be brought out from the dusty files to be investigated afresh with vigour.
