Challenges For The Police

Conversations with senior police officers reveal several lacunae in the way “Hindu-Muslim conflicts” have been handled over the years. The problem has aggravated in these times of quick messaging mobile applications, they say.

“Mobs, especially Muslim mobs, gathering to ‘avenge’ minor scuffles is not a new phenomenon as such. It’s routine for the police to deploy a force outside major mosques in sensitive areas like Aligarh,” said a senior police officer from Uttar Pradesh. “But earlier, such violence was limited mostly to Friday afternoons when community meets for joint prayers,” he said.

The officer, currently posted as Superintendent of Police of a communally sensitive district in west UP, spoke on the condition of anonymity.

He said the attack in Chandni Chowk was manifestation of a “growing trend” of mobs gathering through provocative messages on WhatsApp.

Those in the mob know that only few would be arrested, he said. “It’s practically impossible to arrest all members of the mob. Many are outsiders living on rent and they run away after participating in violence,” he said.

Notably in the Mathura case, seven men landed in the police net even though the first information report (FIR) mentioned two names along with ‘15-20 unidentified men’. In the Basai Darapur case, four arrests were made despite videos showing well over 10 people. In the Chandni Chowk case, 17 men were arrested until 7 July despite the mob having over a hundred people.

The officer said a mob typically has three parts. One, the foot soldiers who indulge in violence. Two, the ‘pressure crowd’ that rallies behind them — lending them support but not actively participating. Three, the instigators, who stand at a distance or who are absent from the scene altogether. “The instigators, usually, are the elite of the community — the influencers, the monied, the religious authorities. They are almost never caught,” he said.

Foot soldiers, as is increasingly observed, are juveniles or men in their early 20s feeding on one-sided religious propaganda, he said. It’s pertinent to mention here that in the Chandni Chowk case, almost half the arrests are of minors.

The officer said that along with revenge mob attacks, another growing trend is that of Hindu youths gathering to protest over seemingly anti-Hindu crimes, most common being ‘love jihad’ and cow slaughter. At times they indulge in hooliganism and destruction of property but arrests made in such cases too are few, he said.

Another senior police officer, currently posted in Delhi, again speaking anonymously, said that handling “low-scale Hindu-Muslims conflicts” is always a major challenge for the police because the perpetrators from either side begin maligning the force as partisan to escape police action.

He explained, “cross FIRs are easily accepted in these cases. Even if it is one side that has brought a mob at the doorstep of another, the case is registered against the latter for acting in self-defence. Tempers are high and the police often gives in to pressure,” the officer said, adding that often, the lower-level cops are ignorant of the finer points of the law.

What the officer observes can be seen in the Basai Darapur case. As per the victim’s son, the family was booked for attempt to murder after they used a bathroom wiper in self-defence. This is despite mobile-shot videos of the armed mob creating ruckus at their house.

The officer said that a preliminary inquiry is enough to dismiss the case against the victims but sometimes the police intentionally drags the investigation in communal conflicts.

The police officer in UP confirmed this, reasoning that no one from the district administration to political parties want chargesheets filed in such cases due to vested interests. “Fir police apne aap hi dheere chalti hai [so police go slow on its own],” he said.