The new forms of punishment in M.P.

On March 11, videos on the Internet showed nine young men, with their heads shaved, faces hidden, and feet bare, being paraded by the police in Dewas, Madhya Pradesh. The men had been accused of creating a ruckus during the celebrations of the Indian cricket team’s victory in the ICC Champions Trophy, and misbehaving with the police.

The BJP MLA of the Dewas constituency, Gayatri Raje Pawar, objected to this. She called on the Dewas Superintendent of Police (SP) to condemn the police action and sought a probe into it. An Additional SP has now been tasked to investigate the case and an officer, who was seen using “indiscriminate force” in a viral video from March 9, has been taken off duty. The MLA also claimed that many of the accused who were arrested by the police were innocent.

Earlier, on the night of March 2, the Ujjain police arrested two men, Salim and Aaqib Mewati, accused of cow slaughter from near Indore. Cow slaughter is a crime in Madhya Pradesh as per a 2004 law. The next day, personnel from the Ghatiya police station publicly ‘paraded’ the two men while taking them to court, and two cops thrashed them with batons. Salim and Aaqib, tied together with a rope and limping, were heard chanting “Gaay hamari mata hai, police hamari baap hai (the cow is our mother, the police is our father)”. Local members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal then proceeded to the police station to garland the personnel, including the station in-charge D.L. Dasoriya, and gave them sweets. When videos of these acts went up online, many people praised the Ujjain police.

Last week, too, five men were arrested on charges of cow slaughter and paraded on their way to the court in Damoh. The local administration razed their “illegally encroached” properties where, according to the police, the men had slaughtered cows.

In both the cases related to cow slaughter, the complaints were made by members of right-wing Hindu outfits. In Damoh, the men were also accused of firing at some right-wing activists when they went to stop the alleged activities.

In yet another video that went viral in February, two men, with bandages on their heads and arms, were seen limping and holding their ears in apology, while a group of police personnel escorted them. They had been accused of assaulting an on-duty sub-inspector when he had stopped their car during night patrolling. The Indore police, however, said that the injuries were from an accident that the accused had been in before assaulting the cop.

While the Supreme Court’s “binding directives” issued last November seem to have reduced the frequency of bulldozer action, these incidents show that parading and public humiliation are emerging as new forms of punishment. The orders of demolitions often came from district or civic administration; in these cases, the police seem to have taken matters into their own hands.

Whenever a ‘parade’ is taken out, the local media take out their cameras and bystanders whip out their phones to record videos and post them online. Bystanders both offline and online often cheer these acts and believe that they are appropriate for the alleged crime. For instance, many people who lauded the Ujjain police said cow slaughter deserved such punishment. While people on social media may move on, the lives of the families of the accused are bound to be impacted given the virality of these videos.

The police continue to deny any “intentional parading”, and downplay such incidents. Ujjain Additional SP Guruprasad Parasar insisted that it was “not such a serious matter” and blamed it on the local media’s “portrayal” of the events. Mr. Dasoriya denied that any “parade” was ever taken out. Damoh SP Shrutkirti Somvanshi said that the police vehicle carrying the accused had broken down midway, forcing the officers to take the accused by foot. “Some local media called it parading,” he said.

Such practices are similar to those taken by local community leaders in the past to shame people involved in adultery and other acts that society did not approve of.

In some of these cases, the police seem to be bolstered by the cheers of members of the public, local politicians, and fringe groups, as well as the silence of the government. Those in power in Madhya Pradesh insist that they are tough on crime; this, too, may give the police the confidence to act in the way they do.