Heads have been rolling in the aftermath of the sensational Biranchi murder case, the latest one belongs to no lesser person than the commissioner of the police (Cuttack-Bhubaneswar) B.K. Behera. The top cop has been transferred after gangster Raja Acharya alleged that Behera had met him at least once after the former was released from jail. It comes across as a typical knee-jerk reaction by the state government which has been left rattled by the sensational murder case especially when the elections are round the corner. The state government denies media reports being the cause of the decision but it offers no explanation as to why the decision was taken at a high level meeting presided over by the Chief Minister.
More than a dozen policemen have already been transferred in the aftermath of the Judo coach’s murder case. Although most of these transfers have been described as routine transfers, no one, not even those in the administration really believe it. These are mostly triggered by media reports alleging gangster-police-politician nexus. So far the media as well as the administrators have not shown any tangible evidence to prove their contention. Allegations of gangster-politician nexus require no proof simply because a lot of times it becomes difficult to distinguish one from the other. However, more proofs are required in allegations of gangsters-police nexus. Need I say that when we talk of nexus we imply a rather pro-active role and not something passive and widespread such as corruption.
Behera’s transfer is most likely to be result of gangster Raja Acharya’s allegation that the he had a meeting with former Commissioner of Police before the high profile Biranchi murder case. The gangster who already is involved in more than 30 criminal cases is not known to be a particularly honest and truthful person on whose testimony one could rely enough to nail a top cop of the state. It should be borne in mind that already there have been too many twists and turns in the investigation of the Biranchi murder case. Media loves sensationalism and for the local media this high profile murder and the subsequent “revelations”, charges and counter-charges provided the perfect opportunity to capture their viewer’s attention. It went overboard covering this episode and in the process created an icon out of a psychopathic killer on the run. Local media’s weakness for sensationalism allowed it to be hijacked by criminals and outlaws. Gangsters and extortionists feed on the fear and insecurities of the ordinary people. This trend in criminal world is different from the traditional robbery, kidnapping, theft and other criminal methods so that in the former most of the times the extortionists don’t even have to attack the victim, the threat of an attack is enough to extort ransoms. In such circumstances it is the notoriety of the extortionist that is the key factor in the criminal operations.
For gangsters and extortionists who make fortunes by extorting exorbitant amount of money from ordinary people these sorts of media exposures only helps them gain more notoriety which is so vital in their profession. This is not a very recent phenomenon either, last few years the local media has been consistently glamorizing the gangsters by publishing/ airing news about them which have later been found to have been exaggerated, inappropriately presented or even false. This sort of journalism manages to create a sense of fear and insecurity among the citizenry making them soft targets for gangsters and extortionists. The local media is having a field day covering the investigation of Biranchi murder case but it is also in the process catapulting the killers to the heights of notoriety and providing them major career boost. This also raises the question, if the media has all along being manipulated by these criminals to achieve more notoriety.
It should be noted that Raja’s accomplice was arrested in Bhopal as he was being interviewed by a news agency. The gangster caused quite a sensation by alleging involvement of certain high profile individuals. These allegations were later found to be false but they had already hogged the headlines and entered the public memory. The main accused Raja Acharya’s video-graphed interview released to the media after Biranchi’s murder points to the fact that not only was the murder pre-planned, the hijacking of the media in its aftermath was a well thought out stratagem and it paid off too.
If the media lacked in certain areas, the political leadership of the state stepped in to compensate it. By transferring the police commissioner on the basis of an allegation leveled by a hardened criminal, the Naveen Patnaik government has set a new precedence. This knee-jerk reaction is most likely to have been triggered by government’s lack of confidence in the assembly election coming up next year. The top cop’s transfer is likely to have a demoralizing effect on the entire police force. As a typical commoner I don’t have much affection for the police force but in this instance I cannot but sympathize with them.
it’s really difficult to find out odd/false person from our own administration. person’s character becomes very floxible when it comes maney and power. it’s really shame in our country that our police department is not free from thieves in itself.