Editorial
RAB and police operational disconnect
Another dent in their credibility
THERE are very good reasons for the IG police to have felt inclined to pull up the Rapid Action Battalion and the Metropolitan Police, two key elements of his organisation. It has been compelled by, what we feel, quite unprofessional behavior of the two agencies. And one cannot but take serious note of this.
We agree with the police chief that a serious dent to the image of the police has been caused due to the confusion created by clumsy handling of the case related to the killing of a sub-inspector of police.
It is quite an incomprehensible situation to have two organs of the same agency in a state of feud over a murder case. We detect an attitude of one-upmanship, of one trying to outdo the other in carrying out an assignment. This is what has come to pass with the police and RAB coming up with two quite different outcomes of investigation into the killing of SI Gautam. It seems rather ludicrous that the two investigations would give out two different sets of accused but with the same names.
The impression that we have formed from this is one of deplorable lack of coordination between different law enforcement agencies, of two arms working in a watertight compartment, and both suffering from a serious problem of self-righteousness. This is nothing new, but the level it has gone to has taken the credibility of the police to a new low.
We are constrained to say that this has done more than merely create confusion in public mind; it has created misgivings about the intention of the parties concerned, about a veiled attempt to smokescreen facts. And nothing can be more damaging to the merit of the case than this. And in addition to causing severe dent to the image of the police, such happenings are bound to sap public confidence in state agencies even more.
We fully endorse the view that the propensity to come to the media with confusing messages should be curtailed. And insofar as the issue of coordination is concerned, it remains the function of the head of the police, the IG himself in this case, to ensure that the DMP and the RAB do not work at cross purposes, and a well defined rules of business, to guide their functioning, is established.
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