It’s time to fix the rot in the criminal justice system to stem the rising demand for wanton killing of rapists-killers. Further laxity will make Nov 6 Hyderabad encounter an epitome of a parallel justice delivery system

If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.

— Charles Darwin, Voyage of the Beagle

The vagaries of the human mind seen in the binary of crime and punishment in the past fortnight — the rape-murder of a veterinarian in Hyderabad and the immolation of a rape survivor in Unnao in one side, and the encounter killing of all the four accused on the same crime spot on the outskirts of Hyderabad on the other — are so complex that for a concerned citizen speaking up is difficult, but keeping silence is impossible.

Violence against women is not a new phenomenon; it is existent in varying intensity in all societies, patriarchal or matriarchal. In India, after every few years, we witness paroxysms of public outrage over ghastly rape incidents, triggering demands for an effective criminal justice system. The narratives always ensue in across-the-board support for amendments to make laws more stringent, but the sluggish implementation keeps drawing people’s ire. Nevertheless, the public outrage has rarely precipitated into the redressal of grievances by trigger-happy policemen as was seen in Hyderabad.

However, rather than going into the veracity of the claims of “fake” or “genuine” encounter in which four men accused of raping and killing the vet were shot dead during the recreation of the crime scene in the wee hours of November 6, it is more pertinent to study why the extrajudicial killings have gained so much traction among the common people. The assessment is warranted all the more so because many of those singing the praises of the police believe the cops had taken vengeance on the rapists-murderers by shooting them in cold blood. The fortune of the Cyberabad Police, which had taken brickbats for initial delays in the filing FIR over the jurisdiction issue, has turned around with this “heroic” act in the eyes of the commoners.

Seen in this perspective, for those living in the ivory towers, it is imperative to acknowledge the reasons for the euphoria over the encounter deaths, rather that resting their case just by blaming the cops and the “mass hysteria”. Whether genuine or fake, the encounter deaths reflect the rot in grievance redressal mechanism as the elation among people points to their belief that such encounter killings will serve the purported purposes of the criminal justice system: First, by punishing the wrongdoer; second, as deterrence for potential criminals; and third, by delivering speedy justice without the rigmarole of the unending procedure. The long seven years wait for the execution of Nirbhaya’s rapists-killers is a case in point for them.

Therefore, terming the jubilation over the encounter killing of rapists-immolators as perversion is pregnant with the possibilities of misunderstanding the ground situation. Social reality is not shaped by those legal codes which are divorced from the desires and demands of the people. It is vital for the lawmakers and enforcement agencies to understand that the perceptions of justice or injustice are always coloured by the values and interests of the particular society. The Cyberabad Police did what the irate people were looking from the criminal justice system that has failed to deliver to the satisfaction of the aggrieved.

It points to dangerous outlook. If people push for extrajudicial killings for swift justice, it means they have lost trust in the criminal justice system. Credible institutions are the foundations of a strong democracy. If one institution usurps the role of another, it will lead to anarchy and loss of accountability. Police can’t be the end process in the criminal justice system; it rests with the court of law. But if justice is delayed or denied, it is natural, though unlawful, for the outraged mass to seek alternative methods. 

It’s high time we fixed the rot in the criminal justice system in order to stem the rising demand for wanton killing of rapists-killers, otherwise, the vacuum will be filled by unwanted and unaccountable elements. Any further laxity will make the Hyderabad encounter an epitome of a parallel justice delivery system.

(The writer is Associate Editor & News Editor, The Pioneer)