Addressing the media immediately after her swearing-in as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on May 16, 2011, Jayalalitha proudly claimed that thieves and chain snatchers and thieves had fled to neighbouring Andhra Pradesh fearing action by her regime. But the last three years of her regime witnessed even educated youth, employed and unemployed, taking up part-time and full-time ‘occupation’ of chain-snatching from gullible women on the wayside and thefts, some of them as means of livelihood and others for lavish expenses and luxurious life. They were unscrupulously lured to the ‘occupation’ due to the laxity of police providing, rather tempting, vulnerable elements handy and helpful conditions to resort to such quick ways of earning money.
As against Jayalalitha’s claim of chain-snatchers and thieves in the State fleeing to neighbouring States, now Tamil Nadu is witnessing robbers and chain-snatchers from other States landing in the State for the haul of stolen articles and gold jewels. Interestingly, such elements in gangs make week-end visits to Chennai and leave back to their States with their booty. One such incident was reported in dailies on August 7, the day on which the same dailies prominently carried her speech replying to the debate on grants for Home department in which she made very tall claims of decrease in crimes in the State.
The report stated that the Chennai city police commissioner was alarmed over nine incidents of chain snatching on a single day during the previous week and set up a special squad consisting of five inspectors. With the help of intelligence department, the members of this squad in disguise maintained surveillance in the city.
At this stage, two north Indian youth were trying to steal a motorbike parked at an isolated place near Basin Bridge railway station when a police squad on patrol duty nabbed them, Later in their investigation startling information on the modus operandi of such gangs were revealed.
According to the police version of the deposition made by two, they were from Madhya Pradesh and two more accomplices of them were in Central station. They would arrive in Chennai from their palaces on Fridays and steal a motorbike on the same day. Then they would go around the city on that bike and snatch the gold chains of women found going alone in isolated areas. They would make a haul of such snatched chains on the three days-Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and with the booty leave by train to Madhya Pradesh either on Sunday or Monday. They would sell the gold ornaments at one place and spend the money luxuriously. The leader of their gang would come to Chennai by flight. Other than the leader, the others would come by train in rotation, the police said according to the confession of the culprits. On their information their two other accomplices were nabbed in Central station one of whom was their gang leader. Based on their information police teams have rushed to Madhya Pradesh to nab other such gangs who regularly make week-end visits to Chennai for chain snatching, thefts and robberies. After all the gangs were caught official announcement would be made, according to reports in dailies on August 7. However the police refused to confirm the photographs of the arrested four members of the gang which was in the possession of a daily.
Another report in ‘The Times of India’ on Aug 10 under the heading ‘Little policing on Chennai’s fringes’ stated: They’re Chennai’s neighbours and, true to form, seem to be trying to keep up with the Joneses.
Crime patterns in Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts, next door to Chennai, have been mirroring the city’s with petty crimes such as chain snatching and burglary on the rise. And just like Chennai, the police force is stretched to the limit, short of staff and struggling to keep up with the case load.
With property prices rising in the city, large numbers of people have bought houses and flats in Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts, which are close to Chennai, and moved out.
There are 37 police stations in Kancheepuram that are supposed to have 2,243 police personnel. But they have only 1,623 police personnel. Likewise, in Tiruvallur, there are 29 police stations with a sanctioned strength of 1,500 police personnel. The district has an existing strength of 1,100 to maintain law and order and deal with crime and traffic accidents.
Added to this, the Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur police have to patrol the state and national highways that pass through their districts. Interstate criminals and those who operate in suburban areas of the city often use the national highways and state highways to get to neighbouring states.
Red sanders smugglers for instance are often busted by district police. In the past five months, Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram police have seized more than 15 tonnes of smuggled red sanders and arrested the criminals. Sand mafia and oil smugglers also dominate in these districts and it’s up to the local police to battle them. Often, these mafias have the blessings of politicians and local thugs.
Criminals are getting more sophisticated with their equipment and techniques but the police are unable to keep up. Due to the low police strength and limited night patrolling, ATMs in these districts often turn soft targets. Recently, police arrested a man who used a gel bomb to break into an ATM at Guduvancherry. Police said at least 45 ATMs have been targeted in Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts this year.
Since roads such as ECR, OMR and GST pass through districts, accidents are also common. There is no separate traffic investigation police team in the districts unlike the metropolitan city.
The law and order police inspectors have to attend to the road accident cases as well.
At least half a dozen police stations in Kancheepuram are monitored by a sub-inspector of police as the station house officer. Though Vandalur was to be a separate sub-division headed by a deputy superintendent of police (DSP) last year, the post was created only 10 days ago. The new DSP will handle Maraimalai Nagar, Guduvancherry and Otteri police stations. Earlier, the Chengalpet DSP monitored these police stations.
Several criminals play hide and seek with police by criss-crossing the district border. For instance, criminals from Vysarpadi have moved to Sevvapet, which borders Chennai but is in Tiruvallur district. They live in the next district but commit crimes such as chain snatching in Chennai or vice versa”.
If this is the reality as far as cases of chain snatchings and robberies, Jayalalitha’s claim of decreasing crimes against women including sexual offences in her reply to the debate on grants for Home department under her control was belied immediately by a report in ‘The Hindu’ on Aug 10 under the heading “Runaway minor girl raped near Tirunelveli railway station” stated,“A 14-year-old girl who fled from her home in Madurai was allegedly raped by a 17-year-old boy near Tirunelveli railway station on Aug 8 night. After raping the girl in an isolated place at Sripuram near the junction station late in the night, the boy had telephoned his friends also to come. But by the time his friends came, public heard her screams and rescued her. Police have arrested the boy and sent him to the juvenile home on the day. The girl has been admitted in the government hospital at Palayamkottai for medical checkup. Her parents who were searching for the girl throughout the day have been informed and summoned to Tirunelveli.
Police said the girl from Tiruparankunram in Madurai had fled from her home on the previous day evening after her parents scolded her for faring poorly in studies. She went to the railway station and boarded a Tirunelveli-bound train. After reaching Tirunelveli, she stayed in the junction. Clueless on where to go next, fear gripped her as time passed by.
“She had decided to return to her home and was waiting for a train late in the night. The boy had spotted her sitting alone in the station and lured her to Sripuram adjacent to the junction promising to help her out. But he took the girl to an isolated spot and raped her,” police said. The boy had been an auto driver and used to stay put in and around the railway junction, police said.
According to the statement given by the girl, after raping her, the boy called some of his friends using his cell phone. The shell-shocked girl who was almost unconscious gathered wits and started screaming, police said. Some of the public heard her cries and rushed to the spot and rescued the girl. They also informed the police who came there and took her to the hospital. The boy managed to flee the place, but was soon caught.
Meanwhile, Baldurai, a 35-year-old man was arrested in Tenkasi for molesting a five-year-old girl child”.
If this is the threatening conditions under which of women and children were forced to live under the regime of a woman, the condition of women police personnel, who are supposed to guard the honour of women, itself is no different. According a lengthy report in the pro-Jayalalitha daily ‘The New Indian Express’ on August 11 under the heading ‘Suffering in silence’ it was stated:
“While Tamil Nadu can take pride in the induction of a large number of women into its police force, sexual abuse of the women personnel by senior male officials continues to be a major concern.
The abuse faced by women police hardly gets reported. But it is still widely prevalent and victims are especially women serving at the constabulary level.
“If you ask my opinion, I would say it is better for a woman to keep quiet and forget them,” says a women sub-inspector when queried about the prevalence of such abuse in the force. While senior police officers strive hard to maintain a squeaky clean image of the department by sweeping such incidents under the carpet, it is common knowledge inside the police force that such abuses are prevalent and there is little that a victim police woman can really do against the perpetrators.
Recently in Chennai, a woman police constable offered to resign alleging that she was assigned unusually long hours of duty by an Assistant Commissioner of Police after she refused to entertain his advances. She was finally offered a transfer to another district.
“She was reporting to that ACP and after she said a clear ‘no’ to his advances, she started getting duty assigned for more than 12 hours every day and was made to run from pillar to post. Not able to bear it, at one point she put in her resignation letter. That was when the abuse got the attention of senior officers,” a police source said.
Every police district in the State has, on paper, a Vishaka committee to investigate sexual abuse at the work place. Yet, victims offer to resign, perhaps indicating that the committees hardly inspire confidence.
Given that the hierarchical system is strongly entrenched in the police department, it is not uncommon that the victims are dependent on the perpetrators even to get a transfer or salary incentive.
Erode constable S K Valli, who opened the can of worms in 2011 when she filed a Public Interest Litigation alleging widespread sexual abuse of women police by male officers, says she is still being “tortured” by the officers.
Last December, she was suspended for accepting a bribe of `100 from a woman when she was posted in a government hospital. “I was not investigating any case and I was in no decision-making authority. Then who will give me bribe money? The officers were prompt in suspending me for taking `100 when corruption is entrenched at every level in this department,” says Valli about the incident.
Immediately following the filing of the PIL, her son Neelakandan was allegedly threatened by a policeman and members of a political party. They allegedly warned him not to meet his mother and support her. They also reportedly tried to malign Valli’s image. Ever since she came out in the open about the abuse of women police, she alleges, a planned effort at “character assassination” is on.
Activists say the present system in the police department gives plenty of opportunities for senior male officers to abuse their women colleagues.
“There are plenty of cases of abuse in the department, but victims will not come out in the open and complain. This is due to the absolute lack of an independent and a professional mechanism to investigate such grievances. Until such a mechanism is evolved, the instances of abuse will never come out,” says activist Henry Tiphagne of People’s Watch”.
During the debate on grants for the Home department in the Assembly on August 6, when DMDK member V.C. Chandrakumar, initiating the debate, pointed out that the Bureau of Police Research and Development’s annual report spoke of 21,232 instances of public demonstrations in Tamil Nadu and alleged that people were forced to take to the streets, Jayalalitha shot back, saying that was proof enough of a ‘thriving democracy’ in the State. All sections were being given the space and freedom to give vent to their feelings, she said. DMK President Kalaignar immediately joined issues with her and cited several instances when the DMK and other parties were denied permission for holding public meetings and they had to move the courts to get the direction to the authorities to grant permission.
The very next day of Jayalalitha making such a tall claim about the democratic credentials of her regime, the Madras High Court on Aug 8 directed the police to permit an organisation to hold a public meeting at Mettupalayam demanding the constitution of the Cauvery Management Board.
Justice V. Ramasubramanian passed the order on a writ petition by P. Ramachandran, president of the Coimbatore North district Dravidar Viduthalai Kazhagam. The petitioner said he had made a representation to the Mettupalayam police on July 11 seeking permission to conduct the public meeting on the Gandhi Maidan, Mettupalayam, on August 16. But there was no response. Hence, the present petition.
The Additional Government Pleader submitted that since Vinayaka Chathurthi was ahead, the authorities decided not to grant permission. But the Judge did not accept this as it would affect the fundamental right (of the petitioner). Allowing the petition, Justice Ramasubramanian directed the police to permit the petitioner to hold the meeting subject to the terms and conditions of the police.
Thus even for the common cause of Cauvery issue, the regime is so choosy in granting permission to other parties to hold public meetings because they want to create an impression as if Jayalalitha is the sole protector of the interests of Tamil Nadu and its people.
It was because of such illusions about the state of affairs in the State under her regime sought to be created by Jayalalitha that an ADMK member speaking in the Parliament was reported to have said that he is coming from ‘heaven’ (meaning Tamil Nadu under their regime) evoking derisive laughter from experienced members of the House! r
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