Editorial
Reluctant registration of complaints
A disservice to the people
It is unbelievable but true that the police in the various police stations of the metropolis are being very selective in registering complaints and instituting cases on those. As reported in a national Bangla daily, it has received complaints from as many as hundred people in the last three months to the effect that the police have refused to record their complaints which included alleged rape, abduction, attempted murder, extortion, wrongful confinement and various other grave felony. In certain instances people had to pay under the table to have their complaint filed. And some of the aggrieved had to record the case directly in the lower court. We wonder what has happened to the much vaunted help desk in the police stations.
Reportedly, many of the complaints are not recorded properly and some of the complaints are recorded as 'general diary' with the possible effect of diluting the merit of the case. And this happens, in the words of one police officer, when there is no scope of monetary spin off from these complaints. But the police refusal to record cases also stems from their eagerness to keep the crime-graph of their respective areas down, or because there are not enough manpower to conduct inquiry into all the recorded complaints, as required by the law, since that affects their routine function.
This is indeed a very damning narrative of the activity of the law enforcing agencies who are supposed to protect the aggrieved not the culprits. It is just not enough to say that the police are bound to record all complaints and that the aggrieved party can approach the assistant or the deputy police commissioners in their respective areas, as the DMP commissioner has suggested, should that happen. Strong punitive action should be taken against the erring officers and the police stations.
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