New Delhi: Media in any democracy should ask questions, but excessive questioning hurts police morale, said Dr Anil Kumar, assistant superintendent of Police, Kanpur, as the ‘encounter’ of gangster Vikas Dubey raised many an eyebrow.
Speaking to ThePrint Friday, hours after Dubey was killed in an ‘encounter’ between Ujjain and Kanpur, Kumar said, “The media should ask questions, but one should also think about all those people who have been hailing the police, distributing sweets in Kanpur because of his (Dubey’s) killing.
“This is a man who killed eight policemen, would rape the mothers and sisters of so many people, attach their property … How can the police show any laxity with someone like him?” Kumar said.
He pointed out that even if the media didn’t raise questions, the police was still answerable to the courts, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), and other such bodies.
“But the media should show some empathy. What if one of the slain cops was a relative (of a mediaperson)?” Kumar asked.
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‘Arrested 2 of our own, have shown accountability’
Dismissing claims that there was a lack of accountability, Kumar said the UP police had arrested two of its own in the Dubey case.
Station Officer of the local Chaubeypur Police station Vinay Tiwari and beat in-charge Krishna Kumar Sharma were arrested on charges of conspiracy after it emerged that they might have alerted Dubey to the impending arrest. Eight policemen were killed on 2 July when a police team approached Dubey’s hideout in Kanpur were ambushed.
“If there is any police-criminal nexus, it can be interrogated … The police has already arrested two of its own,” Kumar said.
“Should the police have done nothing to protect itself just because of the wrongdoing of a few … Should they have gone into hiding or gotten killed in the fear of questions from the media — That is not the job of the police.”
When asked about specifics such as why media vehicles following the police convoy, that was transporting Dubey from Ujjain to Kanpur, was stopped minutes before the accident and subsequent shooting, or why Dubey was not in handcuffs, Kumar said, “All the details will suffer in judicial inquiries … But one must remember that he is a criminal behind a cold-blooded ambush unlike any other before.”
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