Arrest of cop in passport case exposes criminal-police nexus

Data accessed by DTNext show that as many as 18 police personnel were charged under various sections of the IPC for the crime they had committed from 2015 to July, this year. Policemen are involved in almost all sorts of crime, from dacoity to rape and molestation. There are cases of policemen against whom FIRs have been filed and there are countless others who just face departmental proceedings. 

However, the welcome change is that after the new commissioner assumed office, he is taking efforts to make things more transparent and those involved in criminal activities are immediately taken to task. 

Among the 18 police persons, who are involved in criminal cases, none are in the inspector or above rank, probably showing that action is initiated mostly against the constabulary and when higher officials are involved such cases do not get registered. 

“A senior police official will not have a problem in filing a case against a constable but when it comes to people in senior rank, there is a lot of efforts to avoid registering of cases,” a police official on request of anonymity told DTNext. 

Nexus with illegal gambling centres seem sto be the most preferred revenue source for many policemen. The city police had registered cases against 5 police constables who were involved with illegal gambling centres from 2015. The senior most in the accused list is an SSI, attached to the Central Crime Branch of city police, who was arrested along with his wife for cheating the public after running a chit fund. 

A constable attached to the Tamil Nadu Special Police was arrested on charges of molesting a minor girl and another one for forced sex with a girl, whom he had assured to marry. They have even stooped to the level of kidnapping for ransom. Behaviour of some of the men in Khaki has been unscrupulous at times. 

“Whenever a policeman is involved in a case there is no preferential treatment and we register cases. The public would know about such incidents when we register cases but none knows the departmental punishments we give to these accused police personnel. We are now sensitising policemen, telling them they should be the role models,” said, M C Sarangan, Additional Commissioner, South.