Monday, September 22, 2014

Who's the real culprit?

This is about an incident that happened south of Thiruvananthapuram which ended in the loss of a life last Sunday.

The incident.

The police had initiated an intense checking of vehicles, along with their papers, last Sunday, on the highway at Kanjirakulam, south of Thiruvananthapuram. An autorickshaw that had happened to pass by tried to speed past, without stopping, enraging the Sub Inspector on the spot who managed to clamber on to the erring vehicle. Consequently, the rick had lost control and rammed headlong into a motor bike coming its way and the autorickshaw driver had taken the impact, dying instantly. May god bless his soul!

The aftermath.

The resulting situation was totally beyond the control of the police which had to even resort to lathi charge and tear gas application because of the following:-

      (a) the local population had enforced a blockade of the road.
      (b) a few of the state's road transport corporation buses that were passing through were stopped
            and vandalised.
      (c) the blockade had the backing of the entire spectrum of the political parties.
      (d) the sub inspector and the rider of the bike that had collided were injured requiring medical
            attention.

A quick fix solution.

The Sub Inspector was suspended because of public pressure!

My take.

In this case, who's the real culprit? I think, the policeman was simply carrying out his duty in trying to stop the autorickshaw, whose driver was obviously running away from the scene for whatever reasons he might have had and it was unfortunate that he'd lost his life in the bargain.

It's said that one mustn't speak ill of the dead but, in this case, the deceased gentleman was in the wrong and this fact should have been highlighted to defuse the situation and prevent it from flaring up. None of the unnecessary events that had kicked in during the aftermath can be justified either. Who pays for the damaged buses of an organisation that's struggling to survive?

And the prompt suspension of the police Sub Inspector has ramifications - the entire force would be utterly demoralised.


Tailpiece.

The words of the man who does his duty sincerely must be taken heed of always and every time.

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