Editor,
Conviction rate for people committing crimes in Meghalaya is very low – as low as 0.5% of all crimes committed so far. The principal reason for this abysmally low conviction rate is due to very poor investigation of crimes by the Meghalaya Police. Another reason is that the same police personnel are also handling so many things at the same time resulting in haphazard investigations and too much pressure on the personnel which leads to fatigue and disinterestedness and ultimately to loss of focus and interest in the case.
The only solution to this is to create a separate investigation wing with a specially recruited and trained manpower. Crime investigation is a highly specialized activity which begins with evidence gathering and building up an air-tight case against the accused. We wonder how many police personnel in the crime branch are really expert crime investigators. In fact, many of the criminals get off scot free in trial courts because investigations conducted most haphazardly and charge-sheets are not meticulously framed and because witnesses turn hostile since they are not treated as collaborators in the process and are often harassed by seeking repeated attendance at the trial. A recent survey conducted by an online news portal has revealed that people who rape are emboldened to repeat their act because of the tardy judicial process and because they are sure of being let off. This should open the eyes of the Meghalaya Police!
Yours etc
Philip Marweiñ,
Shillong-2.
Walking for a cause?
Editor,
We have seen ‘walk for humanity’ where participants walk for a cause. Now, we have witnessed in Odisha a man walking a distance of 10 km with his wife’s dead body from the hospital where she died. The hospital did not offer him the service of a mortuary van. This is a walk that showcases the callous indifference of our system. However, it will be of no use appealing for humanity when more than half of our population is reeling with a meagre 4.1 per cent of nation’s wealth. Rather, it is time to feel good for our stellar performance in going to the moon, Mars and CERN. We should learn to take a pride in the fact that gala wedding parties of Indian billionaires can match any glamorous extravaganza of the world. Let us enjoy the magic of exclusive economic growth for some, even staying put at the back bench (130th) of human development index! What an irony indeed!
Yours etc.,
Sujit De,
Kolkata
Midnight street hawks!
Editor,
Time and again we hear of car accidents occurring once the clock strikes 10, either because of rash and drunken driving or disrespecting one way traffic. I witnessed one such accident on the night of September 6 at around 10.45 pm on the LaitumkhrahDonBosco-Dhankheti lane when a speeding car and a bike took turns into having some fun trying to hit the 120 kmph skills they have. My friend and I who took that road had no alternative but to crash our car straight onto the footpath just to avoid an accident. On being confronted these stunt masters apologized but said it’s their passion to hit 120 kmph. They even boasted that the soft speed breakers all along Laitumkhrah road are most favourable to try the fly and shift speed stunt, even knowing fully well the dangers they put to themselves and others into. My only suggestion to the State Public Works Department is to please heighten the existing speed breakers on this stretch so that such people will have to hit 20 kmph and not 120kmph. I know it’s impossible to keep a traffic police at this hour but installation of a functioning CCTV at various potential speeding points across the city will somehow keep things at bay. I fervently request all commuters to avoid traveling at night on the streets of Shillong because no one likes to be an accident victim and leave behind grieving families.
Yours etc.,
D. Washing,
Via email
Crocodile tears
Editor,
The hanging of a notorious, ruthless and convicted war criminal has again triggered crocodile tears for two nations: Pakistan and Turkey. While Pakistan is an active promoter of Global Industrial Terrorism and actively involved in crossborder terrorism in India, Iran and Afghanistan as part of their state policy, Turkey is transforming into an undercover dictatorial state that is conducting inhuman torture on its own citizens to silence every voice of dissent to secure the unjust rule of a tyrant named President Erdogan. Furthermore, while Turkey is poking its ugly nose into the internal affairs of an independent, sovereign and democratic Bangladesh, the country stands globally convicted for the outrageous Aremenian genocide that killed countless innocent people in an ethnic cleaning exercise. The terrorist state of Pakistan stands accused of killing millions of innocent people in pre independent Bangladesh during the War of Liberation. Both Pakistan and Turkey are two shameless nations and promoters of terrorism and genocide and should shake their hands as two cowardly devils whose names stand accused of war-mongering, death, destruction, rapes, genocide and human tragedy. Failing in their internal politics they have now started interfering in the affairs of others. These two shameless nations should be boycotted at every possible international platform until they publicly apologise for their historical roles and responsibilities in two major global genocides. Bangladesh should approach the United Nations asking for a motion for pushing both these nations to ask for formal forgiveness at the UN platform for their alleged roles in supporting genocides, war crimes and human tragedy. Both nations should be forced to pay appropriate compensation for their notorious crime against humanity. Bangladesh should support Armenia diplomatically in their global efforts to convict Turkey for the Armenian genocide.
Yours etc.,
Saikat Kumar Basu Lethbridge
AB Canada T1J 4B3