Bring bigwigs to justice. Need to fix accountability in the system

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has rightly deprecated the manner in which tainted IAS and IPS officers and politicians are evading justice by circumventing the system and getting away with light or no punishment at all. Referring to the Ruchika Girhotra molestation case in which the accused, former DGP S.P.S. Rathore, after 19 years of trial, got away with a minor punishment of six months’ jail, Justice Ranjit Singh observed that this was a classic example of how justice delayed was justice denied. In this case, Rathore either delayed the trial or influenced the investigating officers to ensure that the charges against him were relatively minor instead of what many perceived it to be his abetment to Ruchika’s suicide. While Ruchika killed herself in 1993, three years after she and her family were relentlessly harassed, Rathore rose to become the DGP before superannuation.

Unfortunately, bigwigs who are expected to follow the rules themselves flout them with impunity. In an affidavit to the High Court in April 2008, the Punjab government had stated that criminal, vigilance and departmental cases were pending against 25 IAS and 10 IPS officers of the state. Though these figures need to be updated because of increasing cases against them since then, there is no doubt that many of them have become a law unto themselves. They grab prime land, take bribes and withdraw public money for personal aggrandisement. This has become a routine affair and yet, they are not made accountable for their crime. Even if some are arrested, they subvert the trial and go unpunished.
It is in this context that Justice Ranjit Singh’s suggestion for putting cases involving bigwigs on the fast track merits urgent attention. The process of sanction for the prosecution of tainted bigwigs also needs to be expedited. Recently, while the Punjab government denied permission to the CBI to prosecute the Assembly Speaker for allegedly accepting bribe during his tenure as minister in the 1997-2002 Akali-BJP government, two IAS officers also involved in the case got away scot free. What prevents the government from taking action against them?

Source: The Tribune, Chandigarh, India.

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