People tending to take law in their hands while pouring anger over the murder or rape accused have left police grimly worried. In Vikasnagar area, police faced a mob bent on lynching a rape accused on Sunday. Around eight months ago, similar incident occurred in Dehradun district court when a murder accused was beaten black and blue. Police indeed stepped in to save the accused from the fury of the mob. “But such incidents rarely happened in the past. The trend is on the rise. We are deeply worried,” said a senior state police officer.
A woman had registered a report in Vikasnagar police station, alleging that she had been raped by a Meerut (Uttar Pradesh) native Raju for four days in Meerut. She further said in the complaint that the accused had left her in Vikasnagar on Saturday evening. Based on her complaint, police arrested the accused late Saturday night. The locals assembled after getting information that the accused with three others was being taken to a hospital in a government vehicle for medical check-up. They attacked the vehicle and attempted to drag the accused out of the car. As police shielded him they, enraged, pelted the vehicle with stones.
Sensing that the chasing mob was determined to create a scene, the driver took the vehicle to Vikasnagar Kotwali police station. However, undaunted, the locals gheraoed the police station in-charge and abused police. By Sunday evening, things came to normalcy. Police had the medical checkup of the accused done late that night and thereafter, they were sent to Jail.
In a similar incident that happened in November last year in Dehradun district, some angry people attacked Harmit Singh who had allegedly murdered his father, step-mother, pregnant step-sister and her three year-old child on the night of Diwali twice, in the court premises. This was despite the administration having made huge arrangements to ensure peace.
State additional director general of police (law and order-in-charge) Ram Singh Meena said that the trend of the accused being attacked by the victims’ relations or the locals was unfortunate. “There is a justice delivery system. There are laws and there are police to enforce the laws and help the victims get justice. Taking law in one’s own hands is a travesty of justice,” he said.
“Police are working hard to book the accused under appropriate sections of IPC so that the accused get maximum punishment in the court of law. At the same time, police officers should understand the gravity of the offences and act promptly. They should stop things from precipitating into a lynching like situation. If things so warrant adequate forces should be deployed to maintain peace. Police must be extra alert in view of the trend of the people seemingly losing patience in the justice delivery system,” he added.