Jallikattu crackdown: Demand now for probe into 'renegade' cop action
Chennai top cop is convinced the video is morphed, but did some policemen take law into their own hands?
Chennai: A day after the Jallikattu agitation was called off in Chennai amid violence against the Tamil Nadu police force, calls for a commission of inquiry are getting louder, including by the Leader of Opposition in the Tamil Nadu Assembly, MK Stalin.
But more important than a full inquiry into why the end of the stir led to such acts of violence, should be an investigation into whether some renegade members of the police force also indulged in arson.
What is this. Please explain some one pic.twitter.com/MMpFXHSOVk
— Kamal Haasan (@ikamalhaasan) January 23, 2017
The videos that went viral, including one of a policeman setting fire to an autorickshaw, must be investigated by a credible, external agency and the forensic results should be passed on to a committee of eminent people, who would then decide on the seriousness of the charge that police acted as arsonists.
Chennai police commissioner TK Rajendran is convinced that the said video was 'morphed’ and that the charge against the Tamil Nadu police, who acted in the face of severe stress against well-equipped anti-social elements who had clearly planned to act against the cops, was ‘ridiculous’.
The veracity of the video as well as the Commissioner’s offhand dismissal must be probed by an independent agency to establish the truth. While no one disputes the difficulties the police faced in carrying out the eviction of protesters from the ‘Occupy Marina’ stir, it is also necessary to establish whether some policemen were guilty of taking the law into their own hands.
On the other hand, a commission of inquiry may establish how the operation to evict rowdy elements from Marina beach went wrong. Notorious individuals posing as protesters assaulted the police and even set fire to a police station when personnel, including women constables, were inside.
The police must be given a free hand to track down those assailants who had planned the assault, and such elements must be severely dealt with if video evidence establishes their presence in the arson and attack. It is, however, vital that elements who stir up trouble by stoking anti-social individuals into action must not be allowed to operate in a generally peaceful state like Tamil Nadu.