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Written By murali772 - 12 March, 2009
Bangalore governance Police Reforms Analysis Moral Policing
First they were arrested for the mere offence of partying in a farmhouse and put in jail. Then they were accused of consuming drugs without any trace of evidence. But their woes did not end there. Even though 58 of the 101 persons were granted bail on Monday, they could not walk out of the jail due to procedural issues. So two nights in a row in the jail house for the sin of wanting to dance and, maybe, drink in a city that doesn’t know the meaning of ‘fun’ anymore.
Though the police failed to recover any drugs from the farmhouse, the police on Monday — much like on Sunday — continued to maintain it was indeed a rave party. The blood-samples results of the arrested are yet to come from the Forensic Science Laboratory.
The police had raided party being hosted at a farmhouse called ‘Padma Thota’ near Big Banyan tree in Chunchanakuppe near Tavarekere in the early hours of Sunday. The farm is owned by Ramakrishnaiah, who had been private secretary to Siddaramaiah, when he was deputy chief minister. The police raided the place after receiving complaints from the locals and the beat police about the party. Though the police could not find any drugs at the party, they seized liquor, sound and music systems along with several vehicles.
ANY ANSWERS?
1) If the farmhouse was rented out for party with the owner collecting stipulated fee from every participant, why was the owner, who violated the law by indulging in a commercial activity, not arrested?
2) Do authorities suggest no private party can be held at all in Bangalore and its vicinity?
3) Why call it the farmhouse party a rave when drugs were not found?
4) Why arrest those who attended the party instead of shutting down the party and sending people home, as used to be the norm earlier whenever there were complaints about noisy parties?
5) What is the definition of ‘scantily’ dressed? Are short skirts and spaghetti straps indecent? If so, how are these, and far more, being allowed in Kannada movies? Why is women’s clothing such a big issue these days when serious violations against women go unnoticed and unchecked?
6) Innocent until proven guilty has become guilty until proven innocent; isn’t that a travesty of the judicial system?
For the full report, click on:
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOI&BaseHref=TOIBG/2009/03/10&PageLabel=1&EntityId=Ar00100&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T
Police action smacks of moral policing
Moral policing was visible once again in Karnataka — and this time, it was the cops who were indulging in it — as over the 100 young partygoers in Bangalore suffered the mortification of spending a night in police custody.
In a fresh blow to India’s claims to being a liberal democracy, these revellers were subjected on Sunday to blood and urine tests even after the police had not found a trace of narcotic drugs or any other evidence of drug consumption at the venue.
The attempt to nail them on the charge of obscenity smacks of highhandedness. For Sec 294 IPC, which imposes imprisonment up to three months, applies only when somebody “does any obscene act in any public place” or “sings, recites or utters any obscene songs, ballad or words, in or near any public place.”
Even if those partygoers are found to have rented the farmhouse, it is debatable whether the party falls into the category of a public place. The police can’t barge into a private party and haul up people.
The police rounded up all party-goers under Section 36 of the Karnataka Excise Act dealing with illegal sale of liquor. Though the charge of illegal sale can normally be made only against the organizer or host, the police arrested guests as well on the ground that it was a contributory party where all of them had paid for the liquor.
For the full report on that, click on:
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOI&BaseHref=TOIBG/2009/03/10&PageLabel=1&EntityId=Ar00107&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T
Further, according to a relative, the whole raid episode is a political conspiracy. Though he was not willing to divulge more information about it, he says the raid was conducted not just for the nuisance factor but to settle scores. He had spent the entire day in front of prison coordinating with the lawyers for his friends’ bail.
For the full report on that, click on:
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOI&BaseHref=TOIBG/2009/03/10&PageLabel=4&EntityId=Ar00401&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T
Excise laws prone to abuse
Excise laws are prone to abuse as they fix unrealistically low limits on the amount of liquor that can be stored at home (no more than four bottles, for instance, under the Uttar Pradesh law). If somebody is throwing a party at home, he has to get permission from the excise department. Though all accused got bail on Monday, they remain under the threat of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. If the blood test turns out to be positive in the case of any of them, the police will then be empowered to book such persons under section 27 of NDPS Act. Those found to have consumed cocaine, morphine or heroin are liable to face a maximum penalty of one year jail and those found to have consumed milder drugs can be imprisoned up to six months.
For that report, click on:
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOI&BaseHref=TOIBG/2009/03/10&PageLabel=4&EntityId=Ar00409&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T
WHY OWNER NOT ARRESTED?
The lingering question on every one’s mind is: Why are the farmhouse owners not arrested? Is it political clout as the owner Ramakrishnaiah was the private secretary of the then deputy chief minister Siddaramaiah? All that the police said was if they found that the farmhouse was rented for commercial purposes with the knowledge of Ramakrishnaiah, then they would initiate action against him. Ramakrishnaiah’s son reportedly had rented it out for the party organizers. But what is puzzling is that if it was a commercial party, how did the owners rent it out? Or did they not know about this?
For that report, click on:
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOI&BaseHref=TOIBG/2009/03/11&PageLabel=1&EntityId=Ar00101&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T
The Siddaramaiah connection gives credence to the theory of political conspiracy mentioned by one of the relatives. If true, in the pursuit of their political games, did the rivals have to choose this route, in the process, jeopardising the lives of 100 odd youth who were only upto some harmless fun? Also, this provides another very good reason why policing has to be distanced from the ruling party as recommended by the Soli Sorabjee committee, on the implementation of which the state government has been dragging its feet - check: http://bangalore.praja.in/blog/murali772/2008/10/30/police-accountability-authority
The above apart, we are governed by so many rules, many of them handed down from the Britisher's times and having no relevance whatsoever in today's world. All the same, they have remained in the statute, and can be pulled out whenever the government/ police wants to nail somebody for whatever reasons. The police, under the present BJP government, by its own acts of commissions and ommissions, is seen to be more prone to mis-use of the laws than their proper and effective use to bring about societal harmony.
Very much like a person has responded in the Home Minister's blog on the subject, "police should be spending their resources in preventing bigger crimes like theft, robbery, homicides, crime against women, rather than spending their energy on these petty issues and acquiring much-wanted spotlight from the media. Those people are hardworking taxpayers and students who wanted to have a good time. If anyone should be really worried about their doings, it is their parents".
Even with being a BJP sympathiser, I am beginning to get the jitters as to where they are taking the state, and where they will take the country if they come to power at the centre. Kandhamal has been the party's undoing in Orissa. The state government needs to do a lot more if Mangalore/ Bangalore is not to become its undoing in the Karnataka.
Muralidhar Rao
COMMENTS
murali772 - 12 March, 2009 - 12:04
A family of four was beaten up on Monday night while they were driving on New BEL Road. The incident happened in front of traffic constables who refused to intervene despite pleas.
The incident took place at around 9.15 pm when Vikas Vasudev was going out for dinner with his parents and brother. A car menacingly tried to overtake Vikas’ car and scraped it. When Vikas stopped his car to ask what the problem was, five or six people — all allegedly drunk — got off from the other car and began beating him up. When his brother and parents rushed to his rescue, even they were thrashed. “They did not even spare my mother,” Vikas told TOI.
For the full report, click on:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Family-beaten-up-police-just-look-on/articleshow/4251743.cms
Muralidhar Rao
roshanrk - 12 March, 2009 - 12:47
http://www.bangaloremirror.com/index.aspx?page=article§id=1&contentid=200903122009031202325569dd98cfa0§xslt=
Can it get more absurd than this? Where are we heading if we need get license to celebrate a festival? And the 'touching girl' charge is laughable! These guys should be put into the family plannig or population control departments, they'd be quite effective there!
When women are actually abused and beaten up in the streets of Bangalore, our commissioner says that Bangalore is safe city! This, when the women did file complaints. Our Home Minister says that these aren't things that the Home Minister should be dealing with! And now, when boys and girls were having fun celebrating a festival, where no woman filed any complaint, the cops were over ethusiastic to arrest innocent people.
What is our commissioner doing? Does he know how his men behave? Shouldn't the cops be out fighting real crime? I shudder to think where Bangalore is heading to as a city!
blrpraj - 12 March, 2009 - 19:00
The participants should undoubtedly be punished if they were dealing with drugs or other illegal activities like flesh trade etc. under the guise of a party provided there was ample evidence to substantiate that. Of course, action is also warranted if the party was noisy causing disturbance to neighbours. I just hope this is not a case of moral policing by the police of all people (In my opinion the police has more important things to do..bigger fish to fry..and definitely it is nobody's business to be telling other people what to do morally).
Obviously this is a case of misplaced priorities by the law enforcement and goverment; but, I think is it also because the folks hauled up in this incident are perceived to be feeble and no threat to them(law enforcement and political establishment)...whereas..contrast this with cases of recent incidents by Ram Sene where those people in Mangalore easily got off on bail for something far worse..basically a premeditated crime..looks like the political establishment and law enforcement are afraid to lay even a finger on those goons. Looks like all we can do is watch Bangalore getting flushed down the toilet.
blrpraj - 12 March, 2009 - 19:13
The police say they acted on a tip-off and that the party was in violation of more than one law. They also say that the partygoers were dancing obscenely.
The above was pulled from http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20090086334
Now, this is one of the silliest things I have seen. If dancing obscenely was a crime then all the film prodicers directors, actors and actresses need to be arrested since 99% of movies have at least 1 obscene dance (of course depending on individual perception of what obscene is..but I guess you guys get the general picture).
murali772 - 2 October, 2016 - 09:54
The following message has been doing the whatsapp rounds following the screening of the movie "PINK" (having seen it myself, and highly impressed with it overall, I thought I'll reproduce the message here, it having relevance to this blog):
Girls, do you know what a Zero FIR is?
'Consent' and 'No' are current buzzwords thanks to Amitabh Bachchan and Taapsee Pannu-starrer 'Pink', but there is one more aspect shown in the film that people should know about - Zero FIR and other FIR-related laws. The film deals with young working women in Delhi who have never had a brush with the law, and therefore, know nothing about their legal rights.
In the film, Taapsee Pannu's character Meenal goes to a police station to file a complaint against a group of boys threatening her and her friends, after she injured one of them in self-defence. However, after giving her moral gyaan, the police officer tells her that he can't register a complaint because "ghatna toh Surajkund ki hai". When she later goes to a senior officer, he tells her about Zero FIR - that irrespective of the jurisdiction in which the crime happened, an FIR can be filed anywhere and be later transferred to the concerned police station.
In another scene, after Meenal is arrested right before the weekend and her friends are trying to get her bail, a lawyer tells them to come on Monday, as she can't get bail on a weekend . That's when Amitabh Bachchan's character - Deepak Sehgal, a retired lawyer - comes to their rescue and tells them that women and minors can get bail on weekends and the bail proceedings can be heard at a judge's residence on Saturday and Sunday. To make sure that people, and young women in particular, know about these laws, the central government is planning to use the film to spread awareness about legal procedures. Delhi Police officials tell us that they have been trying to spread awareness about law through their Parivartan Cell and the film might help them in the endeavour.
'Pink' to create legal awareness - Talking about the decision to use the film to spread awareness about FIR laws, the film's producer, Shoojit Sircar, tells us, "Many senior officials from the central government, who have seen the movie, have approached us and expressed their desire to use the film to spread awareness about the Zero FIR. They told me that after the film is out of theatres, they will take it to schools and colleges to spread awareness. It is important for women to know that, according to the law, FIRs can be registered anywhere and the bail hearing for women and children can be held at the judge's residence. We need to know the laws and sadly, not many are aware."
The issues 'Pink' raises are real - Delhi Police Senior officials of the Delhi Police say that they conduct workshops in schools and colleges to spread awareness about FIR laws and always focus on the Zero FIR. Madhur Verma, DCP (North), says, "The reason Pink hits so hard is because it shows reality. Like in the movie, even in real life, not many women are aware about many important laws like the Zero FIR. We need to inform more girls about it and if a film can help give the message, then why not?"
I think not just the Delhi police, but the DGP's of all states, across the country, need to make sure their entire police force sees this movie, and thereafter that the right message thereof (no means NO, irrespective of whether it's a stranger, a prostitute, of even your wife) is conveyed to them too.
A question I have is "shouldn't the court have proceeded against the lady police officer too for filing a false complaint?" The easy pliability of the low level police officials is clearly the weakest link in our policing system, and that perhaps needs immediate attention.
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