Imkong Walling
The public has a short memory but government procedure must carry on. Police investigations, in particular, are expected to find closure, which, besides others, would imply studying and recording all the minute details to eventually put together a water-tight case that can withstand the rigours of courtroom scrutiny.
In recent months, there have been some cases, which made the headlines. To recall a few, there was the case of the missing gold biscuits or “misappropriated,” as claimed by the Nagaland Police Headquarters, last year. In April this year, there was the unraveling of an alleged fuel adulteration unit in Dimapur. In May, there was the case of a youth from Assam succumbing to an alleged assault. More recently, there was the curious case of three individuals facing criminal charges under the Atomic Energy Act after getting caught for possessing a substance suspected to be uranium dust.
Now, all these cases have their own peculiarities with the accused and the offences sharing no connection whatsoever. However, to the keen observer, there is a common thread that binds them. Barring the uranium case, delay and hesitancy on the part of the police was apparent.
The infamous gold biscuit incident was clearly an illustration of law-keepers going rogue. Unfortunately, no effort was made to go public with the case, only for the PHQ to court controversy later on. For reasons best known to the PHQ, it took well over a month to come out with the details and that too after the accused police personnel applied for bail.
The fuel adulteration allegation was another, wherein hesitancy and unwillingness was apparent. In this case, no police personnel turned up at the location where a fuel adulteration operation was allegedly being run, even after verbal complaint was relayed. Sua sponte, as they say in Latin, was clearly missing. It was only the next day and two FIRs that the police took cognizance of the allegation.
The tragic case of the youth from Assam was also a peculiar one. For a happening that prompted the police to institute a Special Investigation Team, it was weirdly kept off the public domain for days. It later emerged that an FIR was filed by the victim’s family and five local youths were arrested but what was it that made the police go hush-hush? Was race a cause or was it infantile machismo turned tragic?
The police tried to explain the reasons away at a press conference, not related to the aforementioned cases, on June 11. Only that the explanation came in the form of the standard replies that uniformed personnel are trained to respond with while in officer training school.
A smart move to keep at bay nosy questions from the media but these evasive tactics does not bode well to serve public perception, let alone elevating image.
The writer is a Principal Correspondent at The Morung Express. Comments can be sent to imkongwalls@gmail.com
