Goons in khaki and a timid government blight Punjab

The conduct of Punjab Police personnel over the last week makes a mockery of its motto.

A serving Army Colonel and his son, who were on their way home to celebrate Holi, were beaten up in Patiala. The culprits were policemen, a stark reminder of Punjab Police’s dubious reputation.

Punjab Police’s public image is encapsulated in a joke that goes thus: Once the police was asked to trace a lion that had devoured half a dozen cows in a village. Following one week of investigation, six cops gathered around a massive tree to which they had tied a bear. One of the cops shouted Bol tu sher hai! (Admit that you’re a lion!)

Jokes serve as metaphors for reality. If the above joke is a metaphor, here is its real side.

Col Pushpinder Bath, posted at the army headquarters in New Delhi, and his son Angad Singh were assaulted on the intervening night of March 13 in Patiala by about a dozen police personnel over the issue of car parking.

Fake Information Report

Strangely the policemen got the FIR registered against the victims at the behest of the dhaba owner where Col Bath and his son were having dinner and the victims’ pleas went unanswered. Six days after the incident Col Bath and his son Angad are recovering, and after the media reports caused a nationwide stir about the incident, the 12 police personnel concerned have been suspended. However, an FIR naming the culprits has still not been registered at the behest of the Colonel and his son.

Angad says, “We were beaten up, we lost two Rado watches, and two gold chains, my dad’s phone was lost, and my dad’s I-card was returned to us a day later by a police official without a receipt. Yet there is no FIR registered. We have approached officers of the DIG rank but our plea has remained unanswered.”

Using Misinformation to Create a Narrative

One policeman who was accused of assault by the army officer and his son claimed that the colonel and his son were in an inebriated state and in fact, they had attacked the cops. However, this story of the police is turning out to be a complete hogwash as the medical reports of Col Bath and his son, both of whom were medically examined an hour after the attack, suggest that they were not inebriated at the time of the incident.

Now the bigger question that needs to be answered is can police use force, and as in this case ‘lethal force’ against a person, and to what extent and in what circumstances?

APS Shergill, a lawyer at the Punjab and Haryana High Court and someone who has worked for police reforms gives a succinct answer. “Police cannot use force unless and until they are handling riots. This particular case is a case of road rage being committed by the police out of sheer arrogance of being cops and thus being powerful. These men are unfit to be in public duty and should be dismissed from their jobs with immediate effect.”

Another question that comes to our mind is the type of weapons used by these police personnel to beat up the army officer and his son. They carried baseball bats and sharp-edged weapons with them. And that’s what they used to beat the father-son duo.

Cover-up Started With The FIR

A former senior Punjab Police officer who once headed the force says, “Patiala incident shows the complete breakdown of law and order. How can an FIR be registered against the victims at the behest of the dhaba owner? It should have been registered on the basis of medico-legal report that clearly suggests grievous injuries to the father-son duo and also that the two weren’t drunk. In this particular case, the officer who registered the FIR is also party to the crime. The FIR against the father-son duo will help save the erring policemen despite their suspension.”

This sad incident serves as a reminder of the state of affairs in Punjab Police. It’s a complete breakdown of the system.

AAP Government is Sleeping on the Job 

There are strong parallels between the brutal attack on Col Bath and his son by about a dozen police personnel in Patiala and the assault on a serving Lt Colonel by the then-senior superintendent of police (SSP) Sumedh Singh Saini in Chandigarh in 1992. The government then took action immediately against police personnel who were out of line.

In contrast, the accused police personnel in the Patiala case have not been dealt with firmly, save for a suspension. The AAP government and the Punjab Police brass are both sitting like mute spectators even as there is nationwide outrage about the incident. Instead of bringing the culprits to book, messages to strike a compromise are being sent to Col Bath’s wife Jaswinder Kaur Bath.

“Aapko to Patiala mein hi rehna hai naa,” Jaswinder Bath says, referring to the messages she has received, adding she has video evidence to support this claim.

The conduct of Punjab Police personnel over the last week makes a mockery of its motto.