People's Democracy

 DELHI

 CPI(M) Flays Custodial Murder By Police

THROUGH a statement issued from New Delhi on October 22, the CPI(M)’s Delhi state committee strongly condemned the brutal custodial murder of a youth at the hands of the Delhi Police at Madipur the previous day. The party said the recent incidents like the shooting dead of a truck driver and daily beatings and extortions resorted to by policemen stand testimony to the criminalisation and repressive anti-people role of the Delhi Police. The police commissioner’s assertion that such behaviour is not a generalised phenomenon is nothing but a lame defence of his notorious force which falls flat in face of the daily experience of Delhi’s citizens. The central government, under which the Delhi Police, functions also deserves strongest condemnation for tolerating the mayhem unleashed on the people by the police.

It will be noted that public protest has forced the police to suspend the policemen responsible for the October 21 gruesome murder at Madipur and order a magisterial inquiry into the case. But, according to the CPI(M), this is not enough. Such suspensions and magisterial inquiries mostly end up in acquitting the criminals in khaki. No such eyewash will do, the party asserted.

The state unit of the CPI(M) also demanded that the policemen guilty of the Madipur murder be immediately dismissed and meted the strongest possible punishment. It also demanded that the central government give Rs 10 lakh as compensation to the bereaved family. The central government must take urgent steps to halt the lawlessness pervading the Delhi Police and make its ranks and officers at all levels accountable. Failure to do so will not be tolerated by the people of Delhi, the party warned. (INN)