Rocky Murder Case: Punjab police plan four-pronged strategy to deal with gangsters

Chandigarh, Facing criticism over gangsters being active on social media and boasting about their crime on Facebook from inside the jail, Punjab Police today said it will adopt a four-pronged strategy to deal with them.
Director General of Police Suresh Arora said the strategy involves swift police action, strengthening jails, seeking tough laws to ensure conviction, and recording evidence against gangsters through video conferencing.
“Tough law is required to deal with the problem of gangsters. I am looking at a four-pronged strategy,” Arora told reporters here today.
“One is police action then strengthening of jails so that they (gangsters) don’t operate freely. Recording evidence against gangsters through video conferencing, and strengthening existing laws which will help in getting conviction and protecting witnesses so it as act deterrent,” Arora said.
The announcement comes in the wake of killing of gangster-turned-politician Jaswinder Singh Bhullar ‘Rocky’ of Fazilka in Punjab at Parwanoo in Himachal Pradesh on April 30.
Police suspect Rocky’s murder was fallout of a gangwar.
After of Rocky’s death, gangster Jai Pal Singh had reportedly claimed on his Facebook account that he had killed him. Punjab police faced criticism for gangsters being active on social media and boasting about their crime on Facebook.
Giving out “shocking” data pertaining to gangsters between 1996 and March 2016, Arora said out of 105 concluded cases pertaining to gangsters, there were only 10 convictions while the rest resulted in acquittal.
“Since 2010, 55 trials (of gangsters) concluded and all ended in acquittal. There was not a single conviction,” the DGP said pointing out that most cases fell flat because witnesses turned hostile.
From January 2015 till March 2016, as many as 37 gangsters have escaped from custody while eight have jumped bails, he further said.
“We have studied existing laws of other states and I’ll make recommendations to the government in this regard,” he said.
The DGP suggested that confession to SP and above rank officers should be admissible in the court of law which is one way of taking care of problem of witnesses turning hostile.
“The identity of witnesses should be protected. Their identity should not be made public and should also not be covered by media. Their names should not come in public domain even after the judgement has been announced,” he said.
“If one is on bail and if you commit crime of similar nature then thereafter you should not be entitled for bail,” he said.
Arora further said video conferencing systems have been installed in 25 jails in Punjab and 89,843 inmates have been produced through video conferencing in the past one year for extension of judicial remand.
“We are trying that in case of identified gangsters. We will request judicial court to give permission for recording statements through video conferencing only,” he said.
It will curb chances of escape of hardcore criminals from custody and also witnesses won’t be overawed by them, he said.
At the moment, this facility is confined to only extension of judicial remand and not for evidence and trial, he said.
On strengthening of jails, the DGP said mobile jammers are also being installed in jails to prevent gangsters and other criminals from having access to internet, he said.
A sum of Rs 15 crore has been provided in the budget for installing CCTV in jails to cover the black spots where jammers do not work, he said.
“82 mobiles/SIM cards have been recovered from the inmates in different jails during last four months,” he said. Eight sniffer dogs have been deployed which are used for detecting drugs in jails, DGP said.
Arora also said a committee headed by DG (Intelligence) has been set up to review the security cover provided to serving as well as retired police officials.
He further said a possibility of imposing legal penalty on the misuse of security is being looked at. “Discussion with legal people (on this issue) is going on,” he said.
Punjab Police, which has total strength of 75,000, has been facing shortage of about 8,000 cops.
On the issue of weapon license issued to people connected with politicians, he said the existing policy needs to be reviewed.

Comments

comments