Bangalore: Joanna Banerjee is a copywriter in an advertising agency in Bangalore. On the night of September 5, 2012, she had gone out with two of her friends for a good conversation and a drink. On their way back, Joanna's was riding pillion with one of her friends. They were stopped by a traffic police party that Joanna said included sub-inspectors Govindappa and Hitendra MS of Shivajinagar Traffic Police Station and RT Raju, head constable from the same station.
Joanna's friend knew he was wrong, that he had broken a law and was ready to pay the fine. But the cops refused to acknowledge a driving licence issued by the West Bengal Motor Vehicles Department. They said that only driving licences issued in Karnataka or international driving licences were valid in Karnataka. Now all driving licences issued by all states and Union Territories of India are legally valid throughout India. SO either the cops were ignorant or they were deliberately being difficult or Karnataka is not a part of India.
What followed next was pure nightmare. Both Joanna and her friend were physically and verbally assaulted, and their bike taken away. When they went to lodge a complaint, they were made to make rounds of four police stations over seven hours. In one of them, they were handed a copy of the report written in Kannada (a language none of the complainants followed) and asked to sign. When they refused, they were forced into a police vehicle and taken to a hospital where the doctor in-charge, a retired Army doctor, deciphered what was written in the 'report'. The charges were on Joanna and her friend for 'causing nuisance under the influence of alcohol.' The complainants suddenly found themselves in the seat of defendants.
Joanna and her friend had two options. They could fight but a blood test would invariably prove traces of alcohol and lead to conviction. The other one was to save themselves and apologise for the 'nuisance' they had made. They chose the latter.
According to Joanna, When her friend went to the police station on September 7 morning to get his bike released, he was asked to pay a fine of Rs 1500 for which he received no receipt. Hitendra allegedly told him that the police could have easily shot the two dead that night and it was only the cops' magnanimity that saved the two.
This incident shows that law-keepers in India still have not been able to rise above the mental barriers of male chauvinism and regionalism.
This article is based on a first person account of the incident put up by Joanna which can be read here. You may have to log in to Facebook to read the full text.
The article has had more than 3500 Facebook shares already and have elicited hundreds and hundreds of angry responses. It has been tweeted and retweeted by thousands more. This shows that the police may try to keep their slates clean by twisting and tweaking the law and by misuse of the power vested in their hands, but with the advent and increasing popularity of social media platforms, things will not remain a secret for long.
In a lot of Indian cities, including Delhi, the police is depending on social networks for better connectivity with citizens. The Bangalore Police will do well to take suo motu cognizance of such incidents and come down on those who give the police a bad name.
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