ARUSHI MURDER CASE- DISTURBING RESPONSES
It is somewhat premature at this stage to analyse the Arushi murder case, as the CBI investigation is still on. However, the fact that Dr. Rajesh Talwar has finally been released on bail and the CBI has given him a “clean chit” raises a few issues that need to be discussed.
The main issue is that of accountability. Who should be held accountable for the trauma and suffering that an entire family has gone through? The character of the youngest member of the family, who was herself a victim of the most dastardly crime, was shred to pieces. According to UP Police, she became the victim because she was found to be in an “objectionable,” though not in a “compromising” position with the servant of the house. It was an “honour killing.” The father was having extra-marital relations with his colleague and a family friend. Wife swapping was a pastime in which the family used to indulge. Till the last day, they were reported to have booked 12 rooms in a hotel on the day the murder was committed.
The litany of lies and unverified statements made brazenly and repeatedly in this case is mind-boggling. If the Up Police was incompetently unprofessional, the media, particularly the electronic media, was thoroughly irresponsible and insensitive. They searched for salacious and sensational details, concocted them where they did not exist, and presented them to the public relentlessly and shamelessly. Sometimes one got the impression that the CBI was wasting its time and resources when the TV channels could do the job equally well, if not better, with their bunch of Sherlock Homes.
The other issue is that of police investigation skills. It is difficult to imagine how a police force can commit the type of silly mistakes that the UP Police did in this case. Not examining the scene of crime thoroughly, failing to collect elementary evidence, jumping to conclusions without verifying facts and showing too much hurry in presenting them to the media were some of the elementary mistakes that were committed. Crime investigation is a specialised work, which can be done well only if the investigating officers are equipped with the requisite skills and attitudes. It also requires close and effective, but not excessive supervision. When due to pressures or to steal limelight, too many superior officers jump into the fray, it can create confusion. A tendency to open the cards when the investigation is not even half-baked can dent the image of the police badly, as happened to the UP police in this case. Thus while crime investigation training needs improvement, the police must learn how to interact with the media in these days of instant communication. The police manuals of many states do not allow their police, particularly those at the lower and middle levels, to interact with the media freely. It is now seen that even at senior levels, the police can make a mess of their presentations. Though information with the media has to be shared, the police department must train their people in this field well.
Talking of investigation, the press reports say that the CBI has given a clean chit to Dr Rajesh Talwar as they have not been able to find any evidence against him despite all the scientific tests that were done. However, it is clear that the CBI has really not been able to come to a decision about Dr. Talwar’s involvement in this case. If, as reported, the initial case diaries of the Noida Police did not have any evidence of Dr Talwar’s involvement in the case and the CBI during its investigation failed to find any, the obvious conclusion should have been to close the case against him. This has not been done. Dr Talwar was released on bail by the court because the CBI, unlike previous occasions, did not object to his bail application. They left it to the court to take whatever action it considered “appropriate.” Dr Talwar thus is still an accused in the case. The CBI investigation done so far raises more questions than it answers.
Linked to the issue of accountability is that of compensation. Of course, depending on the final outcome of the case by the court, Dr Talwar or the family can take a decision on this issue, but can we expect the police and the media to atone for their sins of commission and omission in this case?
To err is human and mistakes in crime investigation have been committed elsewhere too, even by highly reputed police forces, like the Metropolitan Police, London. There is that famous case of Stephen Lawrence, who was a young black man murdered by a gang of white racists in South London in 1993. Investigation was initially conducted twice by the Metropolitan Police, but the Macpherson Inuiry Commission appointed by the UK Government (1999) concluded that the police investigation was marred by “a combination of professional incompetence, institutional racism, and a failure of leadership by senior officers.'' The image of the police in the UK received a severe beating by the Commission’s findings, but the way the police and the government reacted was exemplary. The police admitted that police investigations were faulty. Sir Paul Condon, the then Metropolitan Police Commissioner, made a public apology to the family: “I, we in the Met, feel a sense of shame for the incompetence of that first investigation and of how the family were let down. We could and we should have done better.” Later, Sir Jack Straw, the then British Home Secretary, announced in the parliament: “ The House will share my sense of shame that the criminal justice system, and the Metropolitan Police in particular, failed the Lawrence family so badly.”
Would it be too much to expect the UP Police and the Mayawati Government to emulate the Metropolitan Police and the British Government respectively, if not now but at least after the court clears Dr Talwar fully of the charges leveled against him!
