Gangs of Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh has given the country the most number of Prime Ministers, so many that even outsiders now vie to contest polls there to gain political legitimacy when they aspire to the top post. Yet, no government at the Centre or the state has been successful in enforcing even a semblance of governance in the badlands of the Gangetic plains. The latest outrage only adds to the long litany of gory tales that belies all claims Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath makes of controlling crime in his state. Vikram Joshi, a 35-year-old Hindi journalist, succumbed on Wednesday a couple of days after he was shot at by a gang in Ghaziabad in the presence of his two minor daughters. This was the punishment meted out to Joshi by the murderers for having dared to lodge a police complaint against them for harassing his sister. Thus, it was yet again established that in UP, a lawful grievance could end up not in justice for the complainant, but his murder.

Coincidentally, the Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the constitution of a commission of inquiry to probe the killing of eight cops by gangster Vikas Dubey in Kanpur and also his death in a dubious police encounter. A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde has given a time-limit of two months and ordered the commission to specially look into the circumstances that led to Dubey getting bail or parole despite facing prosecution in 64 criminal cases. ‘We consider it to be the single most important factor,’ pointed out the Bench.

Here is a great opportunity to clean up the Augean stables of UP’s justice delivery system, if Yogi is sincere about putting down the outlaws. Dubey could not have got bail or parole without politicians, the police, the prosecution and even certain elements of the lower judiciary being complicit. Similarly, Joshi could not have got killed had the police promptly acted on his complaint. Yogi should train his guns at the bent cops to succeed in ridding the state of its worst criminal elements and the climate of impunity.

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