Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Disturbing trends on law and order front

Roy Mathew

Police fail to detect a series of organised crimes

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala is witnessing some disturbing trends on the law and order front.

The hijacking of a bus belonging to Tamil Nadu in Kochi early this month was the sort of crime that had never happened in the State. The State is also witnessing murders apparently carried out by hired goons. The law-enforcing agency is failing to detect such crimes because of the nexus among those ordering the crimes, the police and politicians.

Speculation is rife as to who hijacked the bus. Whether the supporters of the People's Democratic Party or those opposed to it did it, however, is not the most significant aspect. A worrying aspect is that the perpetrators of the crime exhibited the skill to hijack a bus on a main thoroughfare, set it on fire at a place not far away from the city and make good their escape. The police are still clueless as to who all were behind the incident, not to speak of their failure to apprehend the culprits.

At Kanichukulangara in Alappuzha district, a people's action council is engaging private detectives to trace the bigwigs behind the killing of their business rival in daylight on a public road. It is said that the alleged conspirators behind the murder and those they hired to commit the murder had expert advice from some police officers to carry out the deed. The investigation is practically stalled, allegedly because of the connections of those behind the murder with the police and the politicians.

The Government recently decided to entrust the investigation into the murder of the priest Job Chittilappilly to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). It may be an irony that the decision was taken at a time when the CBI is throwing its hands up after years of investigation into the Sister Abhaya case. The Crime Branch had investigated both the cases unsuccessfully for a long time. A notable aspect is that in both cases, the police had been accused of shielding the guilty. In the case of Fr. Chittilappilly, there is indication that hired killers carried out the murder.

These, in fact, are not isolated cases but the ones that had come to light because of protests by action councils. Cases like the murder of a prohibitionist in Idukki district some years ago by the so-called liquor mafia had been forgotten because nobody was there to rake up the issue.

Such cases actually point to the growth of organised criminals with links at the right places, allegedly more rampant with the Government decisions to withdraw vigilance and disciplinary cases against policemen.

The Government's answer to the growing number of organised crime is the recently published Felonious Activities (Prevention) Bill, which proposes preventive detention of known depredators. At the same time, the Government is planning to go on appeal against a court order prohibiting remission of life terms awarded for murderers. It wants prisoners serving life sentences to be let out after eight years.

The dichotomy in the Government's approach is obvious. On one hand, it wants to put all the petty criminals into prison without trial. (The bigwigs with influence would obviously escape the dragnet of the new law). At the same time, it wants early release of those convicted for murder. Needless to say that the proposed legislation would not only fail to fully address the issues at hand, but also give rise to human rights violations.

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