In UP, police are Enemy No. 1

In UP, police are Enemy No. 1
AMIT SHARMA

LUCKNOW, FEB 11: As Rajnath Singh celebrates 100 days of clinging to power in Uttar Pradesh, his state's citizens are running scared from those who're supposed to protect them: the police.

On Friday, Shiv Prasad Verma was burnt in a revenue jail in Sohawal, in Faizabad district. He was admitted to hospital with more than 60 per cent burns. On February 4, a 11-month-old baby was trampled to death by policemen who sexually harassed her mother and arrested her father in Safipur village of Unnao district. And on February 1, 24-year-old Rakesh Sharma was killed in police custody in Gorakahpur district.

Forget anything Rajnath Singh says about ``law and order'' and ``good governance'': for UP's citizens, it's the police who seem more dangerous than criminals.

Rakesh Sharma, who had no criminal record, was arrested by the Shahpur police station in Gorakhpur district on February 1, reportedly on a trumped up charge. The victim had contested the Assembly polls on an Apna Dal ticket. Sources say Sharma was stripped, adminstered electric shocks and beaten mercilessly, which eventually caused his death. The body was hurriedly disposed of, and his parents couldn't even see their child after he was arrested.

The police didn't lodge an FIR at first, but finally did so under public pressure. Three policemen and the station in-charge were named in the FIR, and yet, they haven't been arrested since some ruling BJP leaders have allegedly thrown their weight behind the SHO Sanjay Singh, a Thakur by caste.

``This is a case of custodial death and we have lodged an FIR. We are proceeding to attach the property of the guilty,'' said SSP Vijay Kumar.

Even the Chief Minister got a taste of public perception when he visited the area for a divisonal-level review meeting on February 7. Gorakhpur Mayor Asha Devi led demonstrators against the Chief Minister. Rajnath Singh directed that the guilty be arrested. but no arrestes have been made so far.

There have been atleast 200 custodial deaths in Uttar Pradesh over the last one year. Unconfirmed reports put the figure at 350. The National Human Rights Commission has also directed the government to produce a video tape of the autopsy of bodies found in police lock-ups so that the truth may emerge.