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Saturday, Aug 23, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

NBWs: police under cloud

There are many cases involving VIPs, but the police are not forthcoming on this, writes
Marri Ramu

The other day, the S.R. Nagar police rushed to N.R.R. Puram Site-1 in Borabanda and intercepted a marriage procession within two minutes of its start.

They whisked away the drummers and later clarified that lack of permission forced them to stop the ‘baraat’.

This gives an impression that the police in the State capital react swiftly to every ‘illegal’ incident - even a marriage procession without permission - and are determined to enforce law strictly. But there is another side to this image -1,940 Non-Bailable Warrants (NBWs) are pending to be executed.

Hyderabad and Medak Lok Sabha members, Asaduddin Owaisi and A. Narendra, and Karwan and Yakutpura MLAs, Mohd . Muqdadhar Khan and Mumtaz Ahmed Khan, respectively, are some of the VIPs against whom the NBWs were issued. How is it the ‘swiftly reacting’ police are failing to execute NBWs against VIPs?

It is understandable if police cannot serve the warrant to an accused like Shahed alias Bilal, alleged commander of HuJI terror cell - operating from an undisclosed place in Bangladesh or Pakistan. But VIPs are in public life and are always accessible.

This naturally sows seeds of suspicion about the sincerity of police in people’s mind. Many feel that could be the main reason for the ‘low image’ of the police.

On the other hand, unconfirmed reports say there are many more cases - small and big - in which names of VIPs figure but no arrests were made. The police are not forthcoming to come out with such data. Even to secure the details of the pending NBWs, a city politician had to run from pillar to post. He could get the data only after knocking the doors of the RTI Commissioner.

Excuses galore

Police higher-ups cite several reasons for failure in execution of the NBWs. Inadequate staff, the accused persons changing their addresses and fleeing to other places and heavy work load in some police stations like Punjagutta are some of them. But citizens think these are lame excuses.

Whenever law and order problems crop up, police higher-ups complain that the level of law compliance by citizens and cooperation from people are low.

But they seem to forget that trust is the basis for people’s cooperation and it is getting eroded because of the degree of difference in enforcement of laws - be it stopping a procession without permission or executing NBWs.

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