Mangalore: Section 144 Clamped in the District
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (mb)
Mangalore, Dec 6: In view of certain organizations having decided to observe December 6, the day of demolition of the Babri Masjid 15 years ago, as 'Black Day' and some others as 'Victory Day', the district administration has clamped prohibitory orders all over the district, under section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Act.
The order was promulgated to take effect from 1 pm on Wednesday, December 5, to be in force until midnight on Friday, December 7. This was announced by district superintendent of police Satish Kumar on Wednesday. District additional magistrate and headquarters assistant at the offfice of the deputy commissioner S A Prabhakar Sharma issued the orders, as requested by the SP citing reasons for its requirement to ensure law and order in the district.
Besides the full deployment of the existing police force, additional forces have been requisitioned from outside the district, which include 8 platoons of KSRP, 5 platoons of security force and 300 personnel of the Home Guards. Forty mobile units will keep moving around and keep surveillance round the clock. Additional security has been provided in areas considered to be sensitive.
Every vehicle will be stopped and checked, he added. This is in view of some stray incidents around Suratkal involving assaults by masked men riding motorbikes. Four persons have been arrested. Another 15 have been taken into custody for interrogation and as a preventive measure.
The situation was under control and the public had been advised not to give credence to rumours, the SP further said.
Related news:
Collective Madness: The laws are not enough
Manoj Mitta / Times News Network
New Delhi, Dec 6: Though the expression "mob violence" as such does not figure in the statute book, both Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) and Indian Penal Code (IPC) devote an entire chapter each to the related subject of "public order and tranquillity". Indeed, Section 144 CrPC is part of the political lexicon as it is famously invoked every time any social or political problem spills over to the streets.
The rise in the incidents of mob violence across the country shows that the existing legal framework has been ineffective in controlling, let alone preventing, a problem that has emerged as the most visible sign of the climate of impunity in India. A violation of the prohibitory order under Section 144 CrPC is punishable under Section 188 IPC. While Section 144 CrPC spells out the power to issue order in "urgent cases of nuisance or apprehended danger", Section 188 IPC imposes imprisonment of up to six months for disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant.
But this offence is bailable and as a result even persons accused of serious violations (leading to rioting) get released on bail, by the police themselves within no time, no matter how sensitive and serious the situation.
Clearly, there is a need to make more serious violations of Section 144 CrPC non-bailable under Section 188 IPC. People indulging in mob violence will then not have an automatic right to be released on bail. The prima facie assessment made by the court will serve as a check on the possibility of miscreants being let off even when the situation is yet to be brought under control.
Another glaring infirmity is that, if the police and magistracy at the field level fail to discharge their duty of maintaining peace and order, there is no law providing any specific deterrent penalty for such failure, whether wilful or otherwise.
The inefficient police officials are at the most subjected to departmental proceedings. This is far from adequate as wilful dereliction of duty could lead to widespread damage to life and property.
Little wonder then that there is no dearth of instances when public servants have been found to have acted under the influence of their political masters in ways that are prejudicial to maintenance of peace and order. The police may, for instance, use their preventive arrest powers selectively, adding to the problem rather than resolving it.
The police reforms ordered by the Supreme Court are therefore designed to insulate the law enforcement agency from extraneous and undesirable influences. Independent oversight mechanisms are envisaged in each state to confer the necessary autonomy on the police to act real time in a professional manner. Amid the efforts made from time to time to combat high-profile threats like terrorism and organised crime, the state has overlooked the need to update and strengthen the legal regime against mob violence which is spreading like a wildfire in the country.
Recalling October 2006 - From Daijiworld's archives:
LET IT NOT HAPPEN AGAIN !
October 13, 2006
Normalcy Returns to the City, Oh ! Really?
by Richie Lasrado, Resident Editor
Mangalore, Oct 13: As we said once earlier, there is a sense of complacency pervading here that the city and the district have turned normal again. We pat our own backs saying that there is a built-in resilience making us get back to business as usual.
But behind this facade, lies the stark reality of the underbelly of our city life. The loss in terms of business lost, manhours ruined and the city coming to a standstill, is not just gauged in money or in kind. The delicate fabric of our society has been fragmented, yet again. The poison of hatred that has been injected in many public minds, especially the unemployed youth, will have its effect for a long time.
As we spoke to people from various walks of life, we could not help noticing an underlying undercurrent of a longing for peace and harmony in the hearts of everyone. While a part of the media hyped the flames of communal skirmishes, the humane part of the story remained hardly exposed. There were several instances of persons from different communities running to each other's help. When a minority man needed assistance, a group of rickshaw-drivers, belonging to the majority community, ran to his rescue, braving all odds.
Equally touching is the story of a middle-aged female fish vendor, belonging to the majority community, from Ullal when she suffered a heart attack during the curfew. When no help was forthcoming it was a group of men belonging to the minority community that took all risks of police beatings and rushed her to a nearby private hospital. The woman succumbed, partly because of the delay caused when the police stopped their vehicle to conduct a check as the curfew was in force.
A well-placed employee of a corporate company, hailing from another southern state and living here for the last five years, is all praise for the city and its quiet ambience. "There are certain problems, which are common to all cities. But, in general, Mangalore has been a wonderful city to live in. I was held up in the office during the curfew. I did not face any difficulties because of the facilities available in the office. But I pity the poor people, the coolie workers, who were the worst-hit," he said.
A businessman, running a large grocery shop, said he was just disgusted with bundhs. "Now it is time for all businessmen to get together and chalk out a plan to prevent all such bundhs. Some concerted action should be taken."
An office-going woman said she was in terrible tension on the first day of the bundh, since, while her presence was necessary in the office, her children had returned home from school in the morning itself. They had to wait outside for two hours, since she could not go home to open the door for them. No rickshaws or buses were available. However, an unknown gentleman, belonging to another community, dropped her home safely, she recalled with gratitude.
A social worker from the city bought large quantiies of rice and other commodities and supplied them to the needy at prices subsidized from his pocket.
There are several of such instances. The sufferings during the curfew was a different story. While the trouble-makers went scotfree and stayed safe in their homes, some poor people who were looking for ways to earn their daily bread, were brutally beaten up for coming out in the open. The additional police forces had come from outside the district and they did not know the life and languages of this place. With accountability not in demand and their being on an alien ground without anyone to question them, they went about with abandon to enforce the curfew regulations.
A media colleague spotted a young staff nurse of a hospital going to attend duty being beaten up. Her explanation that she was going on duty would not convince the men in khakhi. It is reliably learnt that after this colleague brought this matter to the notice of DGP Sial at his press conference that the cops were given instructions to go about with consideration. Similarly, a French visitor to the city in transit, who did not know anything about the curfew, was being roughened, while he was on his way to the railway station to catch a train out of Mangalore. But for the timely arrival of our correspondent on the scene, he would have been simply thrashed. Our man dropped him at the railway station and in turn the tourist thanked him with folded hands, in typical Indian style.
A senior citizen said: "For the first time the citizens got to know what discipline was. There has been rampant violation of traffic regulations. Three persons riding motorbikes, two-wheelers riding parallel to each other and talking to each other on the main roads, thereby inconveniencing the traffic behind them, speeding and various others. For a few days at least, they behaved well."
Another senior person added, "For some days at least there was no pollution on the roads, no bullying of pedestrians and smaller vehicles with blaring horns, no breakneck speeding, no overtaking and what not. All the hardships apart, this was a plus point."
A regular office-goer made an interesting remark: "Since the roads were free for many days, at least under police protection, the roads could have been repaired. An ideal opportunity has been lost," he said.
Well, the normalcy has returned all right. But what about the damage done to the image of Mangalore, the flames of hatred that were spread? It is only hoped that everything is forgotten as a nightmare and no signs of revenge will be left behind.
The saddest part of all this turmoil was that many of our elected representatives and political leaders, instead of applying the healing balm on the fresh wounds, became flies in the ointment themselves by issuing statements of passing the buck and indulging in a blame-game.
Fishing in muddled waters, as the old saying goes.
The citizens have a Lot of Homework to Do
October 9, 2006
by Richie Lasrado, Resident Editor
Pics Dayanand Kukkaje
- Will Vinayanna's words fall on deaf ears?
Mangalore: Eminent and highly-respected corporate head, educationist and community leader Nitte Vinay Hegde made a very valid point at a peace meeting of different communities on Sunday.
He called for a total ban on bundhs and also did some plainspeak by saying the elite and the business community has been bending over backwards to the muscle power of those calling for these senseless anti-social acts for too long.
Today our society is at the mercy of fifteen people, he said cryptically, which was heard in a deafening kind of silence. It is time the citizens and the entrepreneurial community showed some spine and stood up to this nonsense, he said in essence. He wouldn't have hit the nail anywhere else or any better.
It's time our elected representatives showed some responsibility and opposed any such bundhs. It's ironical to hear those in power today seeking a 'bundh' on 'bundhs' at this stage when the damage has already been done, while they themselves led bundhs and held the city or district to ransom, not so long ago.
The NDTV crew interviewing curfew-hit citizens in Bijai market
TV outdoor vans, never seen before in the city
If Mangalore earned a place in the international aviation map with a flight from Dubai landing here on October 3, the very next day the turmoil was begun by a 'bundh' which escalated into a wide-scale conflagration, resulting in a loss of millions of rupees and thousands of manhours.
Did we deserve all this?
And today we bow our heads in shame as several national TV channels, having pitched their tents here, show us bare to the world, while international print media right from the International Herald Tribune to the Straits Times carries the name of Mangalore for all the wrong reasons. Did we deserve this?
Then it becomes incumbent upon our business, religious and community leaders, social activists and thinkers to heed Vinayanna's words and put their heads together to stop this menace, once and for all.
Will it happen?
ALSO READ: