Cops as criminals: Is it bringing bad name to the police ?

The arrest of a former Superintendent of Police of Bajali district, an Additional SP, and a Deputy SP of the same district on charges of extortion has not only brought a bad name to the Assam Police but has also seriously eroded the trust of the common people in the police. Reports quoting Assam Police Special DG Harmeet Singh said Siddhartha Kumar Buragohain, a former SP of Bajali and 2014-batch IPS officer, had teamed up with his Additional SP Gayatri Sonowal and DySP Puskal Gogoi to extort a huge sum of money from a trader. They also allegedly assaulted the trader after keeping him in unlawful confinement for a couple of days. As has been reported, Siddhartha Buragohain & Company not only extorted money in cash from the trader but also took some bank checks. A suitcase containing Rs 64.29 lakh in cash has also been recovered from a vehicle belonging to one of the three police officers. Police officers are supposed to be custodians of the law. They are required to assert and apply the rule of law, prevent, check, and investigate crimes, and arrest criminals. In the instant case, literally the entire team of police officers in Bajali had turned into a gang of criminals. Going by the description of how the IPS officer and his gang carried out the extortion, one can easily suspect that this is not the first time that these police officers have committed such a crime. A thorough investigation of all the places in which the three officers were posted in the past few years will probably reveal what other crimes these two men and one lady officer must have committed. As the Special DG stated, the arrested IPS officer even engaged several junior police officers and even his driver and PSO in the crime, thus converting almost all police personnel posted at Bajali into criminals. What probably needs to be done is also to publish the names of the parents of the three officers, namely Siddhartha Kumar Buragohain, Gayatri Sonowal, and Puskal Gogoi. This will not only bring shame to their respective parents and families but, in turn, also work as a deterrent in respect of other criminal-minded police officers working in the state. What must also be noted is that the common people are no longer surprised or shocked to learn about the criminal activities of the three police officers and their subsequent arrests. A number of senior police officers have been arrested in Assam in the past three or four years on charges of committing crimes. It is now up to the investigating agency to put up a watertight report against these officers so that the court can award them exemplary punishment.