Daily Post 1479
OPEN CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION
Democracy has an uncanny knack of denigrating itself and every time one feels it has reached the nadir only to find another bigger low. We find drop boxes for ballots being put up by a political party in the most powerful democracy of the world. Does legality matter? Is rule of law which is the first thing to be dispensed with, in a democracy while desperately vouching for it. Where secrecy of ballot is supreme and the criminal investigation is ripped threadbare for no reason. The bull fight or the bull race with the humans all around in different poses of activity, moods, colour and desperation are all visible in the media coverage of it.
Power is the opium for all but for the masses, because they have never experienced it and there is no likelihood that it would happen in the near foreseeable future. The checks and balances of democracy is meant for public consumption. For all outside the executive command and control, its always a muscle flexing time. All elements try and maximise it in their normal functioning, peaceful co-existence. That does not in any way mean that things are running fine. The tussle is always on. Having got what is due to them, they develop the urge to take over the whole pie or at least to make others irrelevant.
A criminal investigation ripped apart in the public domain is not a criminal investigation. First is, to get the clue, how does it help in that? With the prying eyes of hundreds of cameras is not the system of investigation envisaged by the law of the land. The investigating officer is the final authority in the investigation of a case, finds a mike shoved inside his vehicle window off & on and a prying camera at its back. What a democratic working environment for an expertise based demanding work. One Investigating Officer and his small team provides active employment to hundreds of channels, their journalists, staff, technicians and editors, finally to quote what is officially relayed to them and they make a quick fix masala story out of it.
If investigation were to be as simple, they would have certainly come up with something worthwhile. One side there is Right to Privacy and on the other, there is no privacy even for the investigative agency. It cannot be the open kitchen of a five star restaurant. It has reached a stage where the investigators are forced to give information. The official immunity seems to have been lifted. Their language, tenor and methodology can put any civilised community to shame. Handling legal issues with earthly / catchy common sense, vested interests and fire play of emotions is a cocktail which seems to have spun out of control. Not disclosing the source cannot be taken as an ultimate right beyond any investigative reach. It can only be called as a travesty of justice.
JUSTICE IS NOT WHAT YOU BELIEVE OR IMAGINE, IT IS WHAT IS DELIVERED AFTER THE DUE PROCESS OF LAW.