Rashmi Shukla
SWARAJ Vidwan, a member of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, has hit out at the Pune Police, against whom the “maximum number of complaints have come to the commission’s fore.” Vidwan, who was in the city for a two-day visit on Wednesday, said, “When the commission heard all the cases filed by the people belonging to the Scheduled Caste (SC), it was found that most of them were against the wrong functioning of Pune Police”.
Appalled by the attitude of the Pune Police, she said, “No senior police officer turned up for the hearing, but instead sent junior-level officers. Since they had little say in the investigation, it is a clear sign that Pune Police is not serious about the cases they are working on.”
However, Pune Police has rubbished the commission’s claims as the Tuesday’s hearing was attended by Ravindra Kadam, city’s Joint Commissioner of Police (CP). He confirmed that a detailed report has already been sent to the commission through the Director General of Police (DGP).
“In all, only three cases were presented before the commission on Tuesday. Of these, an offence has already been filed and legal procedure initiated in one of the cases. The rest two parties were of the case involving former Joint C P Sunil Ramanand. The commission heard the sides of Ramanand, PMC’s Prashant Waghmare and Pune Police on the day. But how can it make a statement when it is yet to receive our report?” asked Kadam.
When informed that the commission referred to repeated complaints against the police’s unwillingness to help the public, Kadam said, “In that case, the commission could have brought such specific cases to my notice on the same day.”
Police Commissioner Rashmi Shukla too has refuted the commission’s claim. “The commission is referring to just one case involving our former colleague, but a report in this regard has been submitted.”
Vidwan also expressed her concerns over the situation the senior police officer had to face. “We found an honest officer was treated in a humiliating way…” she said. When asked about the overall nature of complaints which the commission had received from Maharashtra, she said, “These were mostly related to victims being tortured and ill-treated by the police whenever the former approached the authorities at the time of filing any case. In fact, we have learnt that on many instances, police either denied or delayed filing an FIR upon learning that the victim belonged to the Scheduled Caste.”
Other cases were regarding land- grabbing and illegal possession of land by those in power and the victims, the state commission officials informed. “On many instances, victims of Scheduled Caste have been forced to fight a legal battle of three or more cases even for simple issues. A team of revenue department officers and some police officers are denying justice to the SC victims,” the official pointed out.
The state commission receives an average of 20 cases from all over Maharashtra in a month. “While not all staff in the state police department is underperforming, Pune Police, in particular those in the middle and low ranks, have failed to perform their duties towards this section of the society,” said a senior official of the state commission, who hailed Mumbai police for their prompt attitude.
While the commission has taken note of the issues, it now plans to involve the state DGP Satish Mathur and also officials from the state government to resolve the matter. “In the upcoming hearing session, DGP Satish Mathur and other top brass will be part of the meet and the matter will be discussed,” said Vidwan. The commission has written a letter to the Chief Secretary of Maharashtra, expressing its displeasure in the functioning of the police.
