Conflicts between police forces of Opposition-ruled states and Central enforcement agencies – namely, CBI, NIA, NCB, Customs, Enforcement Directorate, and Income Tax, are being regularly reported, which does not augur well for the security of the country. The latest case to grab headlines is the attack on NIA officers by an unruly crowd of miscreants in East Medinipur district in Bengal.
The NIA team which was probing Bengal’s Bhupatinagar blast case, in which three persons were killed in December 2022, had to confront an irate mob, which objected to their arresting two suspects. The windows of the NIA vehicle were smashed and two officials sustained injuries. Another similar incident that occurred on January 5, 2024, prompted the Calcutta High Court to transfer the probe into an attack on Enforcement Directorate officials at Sandeshkali from the West Bengal police to the CBI. The court also directed that the custody of TMC leader Shajahan Sheikh, who was arrested by the West Bengal police on February 29 in connection with the attack, be handed over to the central agency.
In May 2023, Income Tax officials faced a hostile reaction from alleged supporters of Tamil Nadu Minister for Electricity, Excise and Prohibition, V. Senthilbalaji on Friday, when they reached the premises of his brother, V. Ashok Kumar, and his acquaintances in Karur district to conduct searches. Some officials were allegedly manhandled and a vehicle was vandalised. Another ED official was arrested by Tamil Nadu police alleging corruption charges. Accusations and counter-accusations by Central law enforcement agencies and state police are on the rise in many states.
In March 2021, the Kerala police registered a case against the ED officials for allegedly forcing Swapna Suresh, a key accused in the gold smuggling case, to give statements against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. According to the FIR, the ED officials who had questioned Swapna Suresh allegedly forced her to give ‘false’ statements against the chief minister in order to make fake evidence.
An outgoing Customs Commissioner even went to the extent of criticising the Kerala government, alleging that there were many attempts to intimidate and run him down during his tenure. “Though there were many pulls and pressures, I never allowed anyone to browbeat us. My reporting officer is not the CM or the state government. Investigation in the gold smuggling case is going in the right direction now,” he said.
Denying reports that appeared in a section of the media that he was under tremendous pressure from the Centre, he said: “People who have no idea about central agencies are making such wild allegations. It is also weird to say that central agencies are being used to portray the state government in a bad light. We are bound by Customs rules and regulations.”
This writer, while discussing the above incident with a retired Kerala cadre IPS officer, was told that the situation has deteriorated so much, due to rampant politicisation of the force, that personnel are identified and segregated as owing allegiance to which political party!
Another bone of contention is the withdrawal of general consent to the CBI, by many states namely, Punjab, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Telangana and Mizoram. The CBI is governed by the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act of 1946, which requires the investigative agency to obtain the consent of state governments before it can investigate a crime in a particular state. In other words, without the state government’s express consent, the CBI cannot exercise its power within that state’s borders, something that makes the investigative agency different from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) which has jurisdiction all over India.
All the above kinds of conflicts, mistrust and growing animosity between state and central agencies do not augur well for the security of the nation. Many nations and NGOs are constantly plotting to destabilise the nation in every possible way. If state governments start using the police to disrupt the functioning of Central enforcement agencies, then it is time to consider the creation of a National Police with all India jurisdiction, and all officers transferrable across India like the existing central services.
The citizens need to have a choice as to whether investigations need to be done by the state police or central police. Presently, criminal investigations, especially communal rioting, political murders and rapes (incidents like Sandeshkali in Bengal) which are investigated by state police, have come in for lots of criticism, due to investigatory lapses, whether by negligence or design. Aggrieved citizens have to now approach the courts even to get an FIR registered! Courts are routinely being implored with pleas seeking CBI investigation, fearing botched investigations, dilution of charges and non-inclusion of crucial witnesses. There needs to be a permanent mechanism, if necessary by Constitutional amendment, to establish a National Police.
This writer has often emphasised and reiterated the need to create separate central jails, for housing offenders of central laws. As jails are fully controlled by the state governments, and offenders of central laws are also housed in the same jails, there is great scope for disrupting investigations and state police interfering in the investigatory processes, at any time, which can prove detrimental to the successful prosecution of the case.
Modi government 3.0 has to address the twin issues of the creation of a National Police, and a National Jails Authority, to permanently resolve the unnecessary frictions between Central enforcement agencies and state police.
The writer is a retired officer of the IRS and the former director-general of the National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes & Narcotics. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.