When there is a lot of talk among city residents and discussion on social media about the response from people present at the Nungambakkam railway station during Swathi’s murder on Friday, R.K. Raghavan, former Director of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), has made it clear that “saving life is more important than preserving evidence.”
Police cannot find fault with people who respond quickly and rush injured people to the nearest hospital even if it results in a disturbance to the scene of crime, Mr. Raghavan said.
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“Some people are very observant. What prevents them from giving evidence to the police about what they saw? It is a question of being afraid or police harassment or fear of attacks of reprisal. In this case, we do not know who the accused is,” he said, adding that eye-witnesses need not be afraid of anything.
On allegations that the police did not normally act immediately on complaints of stalking made by women, Mr. Raghavan said the police were duty-bound to give protection and people could, as a right, demand services for taxes they paid to the State. “If they are not satisfied, people could approach even the nearest Magistrate. Courts these days are very sensitive to protection of women and act quickly,” he said.
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