Stem systemic rot laid bare by Waze case

Sankar Sen

Ex-Director, National Police Academy

Sachin Waze’s sinister underhand operations have besmirched the image of the Mumbai Police and led to the resignation of Maharashtra’s Home Minister Anil Deshmukh. The NIA is investigating the cases lodged against Waze, while the CBI has started a probe into allegations levelled against the former Home Minister by former Police Commissioner of Mumbai Param Bir Singh. Many more skeletons are likely to tumble out of the cupboards.

Such a crisis was long in the making. Its roots lie in gradual politicisation of a professionally competent force, leading to the emergence of encounter experts like Waze. He is a frightful specimen of a new species that has sprouted in many other police forces of the country. In his notorious but colourful career in the police, Waze earned kudos of his seniors and political bosses by killing many criminals in fake encounters. He is credited with more than 60 killings. His guide and mentor was another officer named Pradeep Sharma, who is now being interrogated by the NIA.

Waze was in a scrape in a case of custodial death and had to resign from service. He found his refuge in the Shiv Sena and became one of their important brown shirts. He set up some agencies and made a pile. However, he was desperately hankering for a return to the police force. His mission was successful when the present government of Maharashtra reinstated him through an order issued by Param Bir Singh. It was indeed an egregious blunder.

In his second coming, though junior in rank, Waze lorded over the Mumbai Police, having direct access to the commissioner. He was in charge of investigating important and sensitive cases. In our country, due to the malfunctioning of the criminal justice system and a number of adjournments, cases take an inordinate time to finish. In such a scenario, encounter experts are in demand in all police forces. Their extra-legal work is approved by the public and lauded by their seniors, most importantly by their political bosses. Hence, there is great demand for ready and quick justice for dreaded criminals and terrorists, who cock a snook at the justice delivery system.

However, the consequences are pernicious. These so-called encounter specialists, in turn, metamorphose into vicious extortionists, amassing enormous wealth by threatening innocent people. Details of investigations by the NIA appearing in the media show that Waze was an extortionist par excellence and his seniors in the police force and political bosses were well aware of this. But he continued to remain the blue-eyed boy.

A study of the patterns of operations of some encounter specialists shows that before long, they develop a nexus with criminals and promoters and degenerate into gangsters in uniform.

Earlier, I had written about Assistant Commissioner of the Delhi police Rajbir Singh, an encounter expert who won acclaim for his daredevil acts. He also won the Police Medal for Meritorious Service. His corrupt propensities were well known, but his seniors turned a Nelson’s eye because Rajbir was delivering results and eliminating criminals although through extra-legal means. Ultimately, he was hoisted with his own petard and killed by criminals.

Supervisory cowardice allows criminals in uniform to strut and fret and function as they like and become a law unto themselves. But when troubles deepen, they are cast away by their departmental and political masters. Rajbir’s bosses quietly distanced themselves from him and no wreaths were offered by senior officers at his funeral. Only a junior officer represented the Delhi Police.

In this context, one must bear in mind that encounters per se are not illegal or unethical. The police and the security forces have to use force in private defence when attacked by terrorists or criminals. Legal provisions do exist in Sections 93,100 and 103 of the Indian Penal Code to provide cover for genuine encounters. But false encounters must be strongly discouraged.

The National Police Commission has recommended that false encounters are to be discouraged because these are not the remedy for the situation. The answer is to strengthen the law and the legal processes. Violating the law in the name of law enforcement is not desirable even from the police’s limited point of view. There are instances where criminals have used the police to bump off their rivals in gang warfare. Research studies have shown that notorious gangster Dawood Ibrahim used to eliminate his underworld rivals by tipping off the police. The police would arrive at the scene not to arrest the criminals but

to eliminate them.

In the police profession, there are many who believe that the end justifies the means and there is need for what Edwin Delatre calls noble cause corruption. But the hard fact is that adoption of impermissible means undermines the end. Violating law in the name of law enforcement will be arbitrary as a process and random in its effect. Police leaders must remember that when the police resort to extra-legal methods to make up for the deficiencies of law, they are seeking to remedy the inadequacies of the system they did not create. Illegality in the service of public safety, as David Bayley has aptly said, “makes policing a furtive and anxious activity” and undermines the pride, which is the basis of job satisfaction.

No doubt, the sordid Waze episode and its ramifications have disgraced and defamed the Mumbai Police. The role of the ex-Commissioner is under scrutiny because of his alleged close links with Waze. Bypassing established procedures, he was reportedly dealing with Waze directly, leaving other senior officers fuming. Waze’s links with the Home Minister and other Shiv Sena leaders were known to him, but he did nothing to clip his wings.

He should have also strongly protested against the Home Minister directly dealing with his officers and thus undermining his command. He felt that discretion was the better part of valour and, hence, his belated self-righteous letter bomb to the Chief Minister fails to carry conviction.

It is hoped that in due course, Waze and his accomplices will get their just deserts under law, but the systemic malaise in the police highlighted by the case has to be corrected. The police have to be depoliticised and violence-prone encounter experts shown the door as speedily as possible.

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