A decade ago, the police in two jurisdictions — Mumbai and Delhi — squabbled with each other over the arrest of a terror suspect.
Both police forces wanted to hog the limelight and claim the successful arrest of the suspect, Naqi Ahmed in 2012.
On Friday in an unprecedented turn of events, the police in three States — Delhi, Haryana and Punjab — bickered over the arrest and subsequent release of Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) member Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga.
Former police officers slammed the drama around Mr. Bagga’s arrest, highlighting the need for police reforms and to free the police from political influences.
The Union Home Ministry did not respond to questions on whether it had sought a report or intervened in the matter.
The Delhi police reports to the Union government through the Union Home Ministry, Haryana has a BJP government in power and Punjab recently elected an Aam Aadmi Party government (AAP).
Former Uttar Pradesh Director-General of Police Prakash Singh said State police were being misused by political parties in power to promote their agenda, and this was a new trend that had emerged in the past few years.
“The police must be insulated from external influences and political interventions. It is creating multiple problems, Centre vs State, State vs State, among others, police reforms are a must,” said Mr. Singh, who first moved a petition in Supreme Court in 2006 on police reforms.
According to Meeran Chadha Borwankar, former Director-General the of Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D), the police being used by political parties is a stark reality.
“But Tajinder Bagga episode is the nadir of police professionalism. We must seek an autonomous, citizen focussed police organisation and get it out of the clutches of self-seeking politicians,” she said.
The images of the Haryana police stopping the cavalcade of the Punjab police at Kurukshetra on Friday were reminiscent of a 2020 episode when an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer from Bihar— Vinay Tiwari — was quarantined as he arrived there to investigate the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.
“If a lawful arrest was made by the Punjab police then interrupting them is uncalled for. If the police in Haryana or Delhi had information that he has been kidnapped by Punjab Police, they should have examined the case documents and should have moved court to nullify the order rather than stopping them (Punjab Police) midway,” said R.K Vij, former special DGP of Chhattisgarh.
In February 2019, a Central Bureau of Investigation team that had arrived at the residence of Kolkata police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar to question him in the Saradha scam was bundled in a vehicle by the Kolkata police and whisked away to the nearby police station. They were released later. The CBI headquarters in Kolkata and the residence of Joint Director Pankaj Srivastava was also surrounded by local police. Mr. Kumar was later seen at a sit-in with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee prompting the Home Ministry, the cadre controlling authority of IPS officers, to write to the State government to initiate disciplinary proceedings against the officer.
Mr. Bagga was arrested in a case registered on April 1 at the Mohali police station for allegedly making statements on March 30, when he was part of a BJP youth wing protest outside Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s residence in Delhi.
