The safety of citizens in Gujarat is not guaranteed and the behaviour of the Gujarat Police has bee problematic for years. The missing persons issue is a case in point. According to the latest National Crime Records Bureau report, in 2010, Ahmedabad saw 229 kidnappings. Besides, the State Human Rights Commission, in its 2010 report, showed that police malpractice (including several cases of torture, custodial death and attempts to murder) has increased from 163 cases in 2006-07 to 394 in 2007-08, 602 in 2008-09 and 910 in 2009-10. The behaviour of the Gujarat police has been problematic for years. In 1985, they participated in the caste-turned-communal riots. At that time, members of the BJP became their victims. But on April 22, 1985, a policeman was killed in Khadia, the constituency of BJP MLA Ashok Bhatt, who was accused of having been part of the violence. In reaction to this, policemen attacked and burned the Gujarat Samachar office — the newspaper had been accused of portraying the police action without objectivity. When the BJP came to power in 1998, the party was keen to improve the law and order situation and reform the police. That was part of the mandate given by voters. But the situation only seems to have deteriorated. Human rights organisations allege that in 2002, the police sent a message to Muslims that the force had no orders to save the community. Police officer Sanjeev Bhatt has been under constant attack after testifying that the chief minister had instructed the police to let the Hindus react to what had happened in Godhra. Rahul Sharma, then SP in Bhavnagar district, said he was transferred to an innocuous post after having protected a mosque from a mob. Vivek Shrivastava, then SP of Kutch district, met with the same fate for having arrested a BJP leader on charges of attacking a Muslim family. So did Himanshu Bhatt, SP in Banaskantha district at the time, allegedly because he took action against one of his sub-inspectors, who had participated in the violence.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 02:22:49 +0000
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