Delhi riots: Conspiracy theory has very flimsy grounds; probe unfair; judicial inquiry needed, says veteran IPS officer Vikash Narain

Sep 26, 2020

New Delhi: Describing the police probe in the Delhi riots as highly partisan, retired IPS officer and former Director of the Police Academy Viaksh Narain Rai on Saturday said that Centre or the Delhi government should have ordered a judicial inquiry in view of so may allegations of bias against the minority community in the investigations.

He also debunked the theory of conspiracy behind the CAA protest as claimed by the Police, saying that the chargesheet filed by them was based on very flimsy grounds and would not stand strict scrutiny of law.

The veteran IPS officer’s remarks came in an interaction with members of IMPAR (Indian Muslims for Progress and Reform), and influential think tank of prominent members of the community, at a webinar.

In his view, the truth will com out if four things are done. First, the police should release the record of all the SoS calls received from the people in the riot affected areas of Delhi, and secondly the Police furnish intelligence report filed by the beat constable or other officers who must be going daily to the protest sites since these started in December, and if there is conspiracy, indications must have emerged through that period.

The third and the fourth thing the veteran police officer demanded were the release of all the videos and photos of the protest sites captured and shot by their department, and the record of the internal phone conversation of the police deployed in controlling the crowd.

”Police should go by the leads found during investigation, but in the case of Delhi riots, it was leading the investigation. As a policeman, we are trained to suspect but not act out of bias. Investigations should lead me, not I should lead investigations,” Mr Narain said.

There is already a social bais in the police, but in the case of Delhi, it has been mixed with political bais, the former IPS officer said.

There was need of sea transformation in the whole ethos of the policing system and this change will not come unless there was change in the political ethos.

”The Police should be Constitutionally conditioned, and socially deconditioned,” which means that the police personnel should be trained to inculcate Constitutional values and cast off their social biases, he said.

”If a policeman eneters the filed after training with all his social biases intact, then where is the rule of law? ”he wondered.

The fact was that no government or political party was interested in having a good police, but the present government was more aggressive, Natian said.

Refering to the demand for increasing the number of police force, giving them more powers and armes, he said the moot questuon was that a biased police with more powers and arms was more dangerous for the society.

He also described the encounters taking place in Uttar Pradesh as ”all concocted”.

Earlier Lt Gen Zameeruddin Shah, a member of the IMPAR steering committee, in his initial remarks at the webinar said that IPS should be free from the control of local political bosses beacuse without that they cant act impartially as they have to please their political bosses.

He said that in his view riots can be controlled by police withing 24 hours if not willed otherwise by the political dispensation. Also, the Army and the paramilitary forces should be called as a last resort, he added.

–INDIA NEWS STREAM