OUR BUREAU
Feb. 16: The way 16-year-old Rajib Das was left at the mercy of his murderers has dredged up a litany of lapses symptomatic of the rot in the Bengal administration.
• The screams of Rinku Das to save her brother from drunks who had pounced on the siblings in Barasat were ignored by as many as five uniformed and armed policemen on duty within earshot. A sixth, apparently off duty, was also around.
• A constable, along with the “off-duty” colleague, had strayed from the assigned post in the neighbouring bungalow and was standing at the district magistrate’s gate when Rinku rushed in, according to officials. This suggests that the purported rule cited by the guard inside the district magistrate’s bungalow to Rinku —that he is not allowed to leave his assigned post — is applied only selectively.
• The two constables — at least one would have been armed as night-duty policemen are supposed to carry weapons — could have rushed to the rescue of the boy who was being assaulted less than 100 metres down the road.
• If the constables did not want to take a chance without verification, they could have alerted at least four of their armed colleagues.
• The three bungalows closest to where the 23-year-old Rinku was standing and wailing for help are assigned to the three senior-most officials entrusted with the task of administering North 24-Parganas (Barasat is the district headquarters). The occupants of the three bungalows are the district magistrate, the superintendent of police and the additional SP.
• The girl was screaming and thumping the gates of the district magistrate’s bungalow but none in the leafy VIP zone stirred to enquire or offer help. All one constable did was give her the number of the police station.
• District magistrate and IAS officer Vinod Kumar was so dismissive yesterday that he had hastily denied Rinku’s account, basing his conclusion on an “inquiry” and without drawing attention to the detail that two guards were on duty behind his gates which the call centre employee had rattled desperately.
• The extent of callousness deepened following disclosures today that the district magistrate had not briefed the government on the gravity of the incident. “I came to know of it late. It happened on Monday night. The boy died yesterday. I should have been informed much earlier. I got to know of it only this morning,” chief secretary Samar Ghosh said at Writers’ Buildings.
The reluctance of uniformed personnel to go to the aid of citizens in grave danger, the eagerness to hide behind rules, the penchant to brazen out inadequacies and the information black hole that stretches to the top echelons of the administration unfolded in Barasat but they are by no means confined to the town. Every resident of Bengal will have at least one instance of official callousness to recount from everyday life.
One of the constables who had expressed his inability to help the boy has been suspended. The allegation of inaction against the five other policemen in the bungalows is being probed.
District magistrate Kumar and SP Rahul Srivastava, who are neighbours, have been asked to submit a written explanation on the incident and the delay in initiating action.
On Tuesday, Kumar had told The Telegraph: “I’ve heard about the allegation but after conducting an inquiry, I found it was not true.” On Wednesday, numerous calls to his phone went unanswered.
“They had not even reported the matter properly to their bosses at Writers’. Those who could have realised the gravity of the matter were kept in the dark,” a police officer said.
Apparently after reading media reports, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee as well as several other politicians made a beeline to the boy’s home today. Bhattacharjee’s convoy was stopped by a crowd of angry residents who booed and shouted slogans.
Two persons have been detained to verify if they had any role in the crime, though the culprits are yet to be identified. “The two are being interrogated. Efforts are on to nab all those involved. The CID and the district police have been asked to ensure prompt action,” additional director-general (law and order) Surajit Kar Purkayastha said.
Police constable Nitya Gopal Karmakar was suspended on the basis of SP Srivastava’s report that he did not intervene to help Rinku and Rajib. On Monday night, when Rinku was returning home from office in the city on her brother Rajib’s bicycle, a bunch of goons accosted them, sprinkled liquor on her and tried to take her away.
When Rajib protested, he was pulled down from the cycle and beaten up. With passers-by ignoring calls for help, Rinku rushed to the nearby district magistrate’s bungalow where Karmakar was standing outside the gate and pleaded for help, only to be turned away.
Purkayastha said Karmakar was on duty at the adjoining bungalow of the district’s additional SP but had sauntered down to the bungalow of the district magistrate with another constable. It was Karmakar to whom Rinku had turned for help.
“Karmakar had not tried to prevent a cognisable offence. He had not tried to protect a life when he had the chance. He neglected a basic duty of every policeman,” said chief secretary Ghosh.
“The girl was screaming hysterically,” an officer said. “So on a still night, the policemen in the nearby bungalows would have surely heard the girl’s cries. It is criminal that none of them responded.”
“The policemen should have treated the matter with high priority. A life could have easily been saved with their intervention,” Purkayastha said.
The state government has declared a compensation of Rs 2 lakh for the Das family. “The compensation is just a preliminary assistance. Such a death cannot be compensated with just monetary aid,” finance minister Asim Dasgupta said. “We are open to offering a job to his (Rajib’s) sister,” he added.
District magistrate Vinod Kumar (in picture) had said on Tuesday that an inquiry had found Rinku’s allegation was untrue, prompting the girl to dub him a liar. On Wednesday, the chief secretary said he got to know of Monday’s incident only on Wednesday morning. Kumar, who served as Hooghly DM during the Singur agitation, has been asked to submit a written explanation
People are asking how this could occur.I'll give the reasons.
1. 30 years of misrule by the Left Front is the main cause.
The most suitable person should be appointed for any post.
A policeman should be strongly built and he should be courageous.
When you appoint persons to these posts based on political affiliations or just on caste basis based on the government short-sighted policies on reservations you get results such as the above and what we saw outside the American Consulate in Kolkata some years back when terrorist attacked it and policemen ran like mice and hit behind cars although they were armed.
If you are are weak and are not courageous, even with a gun in you hand, you will be a coward.
2. The policy of politicians to have policemen to just look after their own security is another cause.The policemen have started thinking that they have just to look after the security of the politicians and their service is safe. They just do not care for the security of the common man. If you want the policemen to be efficient the security of ALL POLITICIANS SHOULD BE REMOVED.
3. Instead of treating criminals as parasites, to be avoided, our politicians flaunt the criminals working in their parties.Whenever, any criminal is arrested, the politicians rush to the police station with their gang of other criminals to have him released. Criminals are also known to flaunt their association with politicians and the police. Whenever they go and threaten any law abiding citizen, they say, go and tell the police, so-and-so dada had come. I have had to face this type of taunt.
4. Our judiciary is to be blamed to a large extent.
They give bail to even murderers, rapists, extortionist and kidnappers without considering that these people will just continue their acts and threaten witnesses to change their testimony. That is one of the reasons why so many people do not go to the police with complaints or turn hostile in courts.
5. Our judicial process is too slow.
Fast court tracks should be appointed for crimes committed by murderers, rapists, extortionist, kidnappers and terrorists.
Such cases should have hearings on day-to-day basis and while the trial goes on. the criminal should remain in jail. No bail should be granted.
Unless this is done, you will increasingly find people taking the law into their hands to punish criminals. I can assure you that if the three boys who committed the above crime had been caught by the people, they would have been burnt alive.
It is surprising that the politicians who visited the family to shed crocodile tears were spared.
I am sure that none of them would have visited the family if an election was not round the corner.
The policemen who were on duty at the three bungalows should be dismissed and so should the District Magistrate, Vinod Kumar.
I don't understand how he could smile after this incident.
We cannot have a liar as D M.
It sets a very bad example of our IAS service.
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