Demons in Disguise

The well-known English daily, The Telegraph in its 2 December issue has carried a report that the Supreme Court has asked for a response from the Centre, CBI, UP government, GRP of UP and RPF over the alleged killing of an engineer, who was travelling from Delhi to Varanasi in the Chambal Express on 24 August, by some RPF men. According to the petition submitted by the widow of the deceased, three policemen and five policewomen in plainclothes entered the railway coach and began to extort money from passengers and the deceased, Rahul Singh, was recording this illegal act in his mobile phone. He was mercilessly beaten and thrown out of the compartment, which led to his death. An advocate, who was an eyewitness, tried to pacify the policemen but was threatened. He tried to launch an FIR but was thawarted by the GRP. Eventually, he tweeted the details to the official Twitter handle of the railway minister which led to an FIR being registered.

To those familiar with the behaviour of the GRP as well as that of some railway ticket examiners, this account should not sound at all incredible. But the point is if the policemen and policewomen, who are allegedly guilty of the double crime of extortion and murder, will be punished. In the petition it has been said, "The internal inquiry report submitted by Government Railway Police has indicted the involvement of 7 policemen of the Railway Protection Force. However there has been neither any arrests nor any attempts.......to contact the crucial eyewitness(es)". It was also alleged in the petition that representations to the UP chief minister yielded no results. This is understandable. The only glimmer of hope is that the Supreme Court has not brushed aside the petition. But the guilty will try every means at their disposal to mislead the judiciary in order to get away with impunity and their superiors in all probability try to save them, not to punish them. Otherwise, why shouldn't they proceed with the case and why should Yogi Adityanath remain silent? It is also not understandable why the opposition parties functioning in UP are not making an issue of this barbaric episode. The civil society also should immediately be vocal about such heinus crimes.

03.12.2017

Frontier
Vol. 50, No.24, Dec 17 - 23, 2017