A Criminologist's Diary-40

A Criminologist’s Diary-40

Account Criminology and Criminal Ju...

PUBLIC LIES and PERJURY

Perjury in law is “the willful giving of false testimony under oath or affirmation, before a competent tribunal, upon a point material to a legal inquiry”. In simple language, telling a lie or falsehood before a Court of Law is called ‘perjury’ which is a punishable offence in India. Many do give false testimony and they escape punishment. Everybody knows about perjury. But all take a lenient, liberal, tolerating or indifferent attitude to the perjurer. In street corner meetings, many politicians speak lies and falsehood. The people are fooled, cheated, misinformed and the offence of telling a lie or falsehood in public addresses is not a punishable offence. In religion, telling a lie or falsehood is a sin and in many religious platforms, the so-named religious speakers (or better, the speakers in religious garb) say a lot of lies, falsehood, stories and concocted stories containing only lies and lies only to convince the followers of their religious faiths. Such lies are treated as ‘VIRTUES’ and not lies. Precisely therefore, telling lies or falsehood in ‘Religion-Talks’ are not made punishable offences. Many who appear in press conferences speak lies and only lies and they are not made punishable offences. In media interviews, lies and lies are spoken, but no offence is committed. Hence, the lies and falsehood have received public acceptance and the sanctity of virtues and not sins or offences in any way under any interpretations what so ever.

In these days, there are channel discussions, channel interviews, channel live telecasts in the visual media. The interviewed tell lies after lies and accuse many for telling lies and falsehood. These liars are supported by vested interests who continuously tell lies and lies and they repeat the lies without any shame and interruptions. People are either confused or convinced of the lies and falsehood and these channel talkers leave the platforms with their ‘HEADS HIGH’ for telling lies, lies and lies to the channel viewers. It is also made no offence in India hitherto.

Now comes the QUESTION;” If telling a lie, many lies and lies or falsehood before a court of law during a trial or otherwise is punished under the law of perjury, why not the lying in the media or in public addresses or religious platform speeches or lying to the public in whatever form be made an offence?” As it is not made an offence, many are not afraid of telling any number of lies and falsehood before the public in public addresses, media interviews, media conferences, and religious platforms or in statements issued to the media/press. This sort of offence should be called the offence of PUBLIC LYING as we call the lying in courts ‘Perjury’.

Hence, if perjury is defined as what is given above, then the lying to the public must be defined as a ‘lying to the public by whatever means, consciously or in a calculated way to protect the self interest or vested interest.’ In every sense, it is a more heinous crime than perjury and therefore, the punishment should also be more severe than what is given for perjury in the penal laws.

A Criminologist's Diary-39

A Criminologist’s Diary-39

Account Criminology and Criminal Ju...

CRIMES of LAW ABUSE or LAW ABUSE CRIMES?

“Whoever, knowing or having reason to believe that an offence has been committed intentionally omits to give any information respecting that offence which he is legally bound to give shall be punished with imprisonment of either description which may extent to six months or with fine or with both”-this is s. 202 of the Indian Penal Code-1860.This section of law received wide publicity recently and the background is as under:

A sitting Member of Parliament in the ruling Government at the center and a former Minister of a State Government in India made a public address in which he openly stated that he was a witness to a corruption case in which a Judge of the Supreme Court of India received several lakhs of Indian rupees for awarding a verdict in favour of some Abkari Bar owners. The incident took place about 18 years ago. The statement was made at a time when many high ranking judicial functionaries were under fire- were accused of corruption and malpractices. Anyway, his open statement got fire and became a wild fire. Many political higher-ups too were alleged to have been involved in the above illegal transaction.

Many political leaders, some advocates, a few vested interests raised their voice and demanded the registration of a criminal case against the sitting Member of the Parliament and the section of law was the one quoted above for not informing the commission of a crime ‘in time’. Moreover, they wanted the registration of the case only against that particular M.P. and nobody else who was alleged to have been present or received the corruption money, offered the corruption money etc. I am not at all interested to enter into the merit of the case, nevertheless I have the following doubts or questions to clarify or ask and certainly, they need answers.

(1) In cases of torture, manipulation of records, concoction of evidence ,tutoring of witnesses to give false testimony before a court of law, several police officials know the commission of such crimes and no one files an information to register criminal cases for investigation. In fact, they are bound to inform the commission of such crimes. There are several judgements from the criminal courts stating that such manipulations have taken place, yet everybody including the courts of law is silent. Why?

(2) In corruption cases, many in Government offices know about the offering of money, corruption money splitting, corruption money fixing etc. Without such knowledge, no corruption in an organized way can or will take place. Every one working in such offices are legally bound to give information of such offences.

(3) In political corruption, several politicians know the extent and intensity of the crimes committed. In domestic violence, many know about wife-beating, torture of women, dowry harassment etc., in road accidents, many are aware of the culprits and thus the final question is-“if cases are going to be registered for omitting to report crimes known to a person, then how many crimes will have to be registered everyday throughout the Country?”

What is the relevance of registering a case when the offence itself is not established? First of all, one must establish the commission of the offence and then only one gets the cause of action to proceed against those who kept silence about it. Even in such situations, a case should be registered against all alleged to have been involved in the transaction and not against the one who made the statement.

Anyway, remember that the section of law given in the Indian Penal Code-1860 was not at all intended for the abuse of the law for making political mileage. This sort of law abuse or abuse of law for parochial or partisan interests is called ‘CRIMES of LAW ABUSES’ or ‘LAW ABUSE CRIMES’. New and newer crimes are added to the old Penal Code of India-1860 which itself is a museum piece.

A Criminologist's Diary-38

A Criminologist’s Diary-38

Account Criminology and Criminal Ju...

JUDICIAL CRIMES- A curse in INDIA

‘Judicial Crimes’ are not defined in any penal codes, for there existed no such crimes till date or if at all there existed such crimes, they were not taken note of. If at all they were taken note of, no action was initiated against the culprits. Hence, those who successfully committed crimes under the colour of your uniform or under the cover of their authority and position have been living in comfort zones. No one had the courage to peep into (why to think of investigating them) the safety areas of judiciary. They were the Roman Kings and above grammar!

In India, ‘judicial crimes’ are widely discussed in these days. ‘Judicial notice’ has a special and specific meaning in law practice. ’Judicial Crimes’ are not to be defined or viewed in that sense or way. There are a number of traditional crimes which lawyers, judges and those employed in judicial service commit. They too are not categorized under ‘Judicial Crimes’. For example, manipulation of records by lawyers, production of concocted evidence or tutored witnesses, acceptance of corruption money and false evidence afterwards etc., are classified under traditional crimes and precisely therefore they do not have any place in ‘Judicial Crimes’. I may prefer to give a specific description (not definition) to ‘Judicial Crimes’.

‘Judicial Crimes’ are the crimes which one may get by combining nexus crimes, consensus crimes and white collar crimes put together. ‘Nexus crimes’ have the leaders, bureaucrats, middlemen, goondas plus business men put together and they work as nexus partners. The unholy relations that exist among them bring money and other advantages for the nexus partners. In ‘Consensus Crimes ‘one notices that there is an agreement among the crime-doers and the beneficiaries. In ‘White Collar ‘crimes, the crimes are committed during the course of their profession/occupation.

Thus, the ‘Judicial Crimes’ have-

(1) Nexus Crime Partners: i.e., the leaders + Judicial Officers+ Business men + Middlemen (Dalals) and Gang squad (Goondas).

(2) Consensus Crime Partners: i.e., the Judicial Officer on one side and all others mentioned against (1) above on the other side.

(3) White Collar Crimes: The crime is committed during the course of the profession of the judicial officers.

The ultimate result is that all in the Syndicate are benefitted monetarily and otherwise. People do not know anything much about it and they are the most honourable men on earth-the ‘IDOLS’ in the people’s mind. Hence, a ‘Judicial Crime’ is a crime of a special nature and it has nothing to do with the judicial notice, judiciary, and judicial officers and so on except that the crime is committed by judicial officers with ulterior motives.

A Criminologist's Diary-37

A Criminologist’s Diary-37

Account Criminology and Criminal Ju...

Going to Heaven & Loving Success

I went to Bentonville Public Library and found a beautiful reading room where the wisdom of several generations down the millennia could be seen. I just took a book and read:

“Everyone loves to go to heaven, but no one is prepared to die”.

“Everyone loves success, but no one likes successful people”.

I read them again and again; reflected them again and again- having seated on a chair in the library. For two days ago, I listened to a T.V. talk in which a person in a religious garb (I do not know whether or not that person is really religious) was speaking about how to go to heaven or Moksha. It was a wonderful talk worth listening and one might be inclined to die at the earliest and for which he would have no option, but to commit suicide. Anyway, I was not prepared to die by such a short cut method for going to Moksha, yet I thought that he could successfully do so.

I came back home and again listened to a T.V. discussion in which I could listen to two political leaders belonging to the ruling front and the opposition parties talking about making the Nation a heaven or Moksha on earth. I found them accusing each other and the political party to which each one of them belonged. Both of them claimed success, but none of them really liked successful people either in their own party or in the opposition party. It was a sort of verbal abuses and hence I switched off the T.V.

There is a growing feeling and a real reality that some political parties are richer than the Governments in power. The Governments coming to power have no money and they are in perpetual debts and hence no Moksha for them. At the same time, the political parties are abundant in richness and they have black and white money. Or they know how to convert black money to white. Some politicians are richer than many business magnets and we have any number of such news items to prove the observation. All love to make the Nation a Moksha, but do not do anything positively to achieve the objective. They become richer and fatter.

There is a growing feeling and a real reality that many so- named religious leaders and speakers are richer than some of the political leaders and many richer or affluent people in society. The offerings, donations, contributions etc. received in the name of God are beyond the imagination of man. They take all of us to Moksha or heaven after death. It has been found that the richest Mafias identified so far were in the name of religion.

Both ‘politicians’ and the so-called ‘religious men’ are jealous people and they do not really like successful people, if they do not become the ultimate winners. The number of crimes committed by both of them to make the Nation a heaven on earth or, if that is not possible, to take the people direct to heaven after their death is innumerable and beyond human conception. Their success is the success in committing crimes in perpetual hopes-hopes against hopes or hopes that will remain always hopes!

A Criminologist's Diary-36

A Criminologist’s Diary-36

Account Criminology and Criminal Ju...

Third Degree Methods and Police

I used to watch American T.V. at Bentonville and I see the police stories. I can see the policemen employing force, torturing people even to the extent of shooting at the suspect. One day I met a policeman and asked him:” Do you torture people?”

He replied:” Yes, in public and never in police custody.”

According to him, using force or beating people in public or torturing people in public’s visibility is justified whereas torturing anyone, including the criminals or suspects, in police custody is an offence under law. O.K., very good advice indeed!

Immediately afterwards, I took You Tube and watched the video pictures therein relating to police interrogation. Believe me or not, I could witness torturing the suspect during interrogation in police custody. I do not know from which country the video has been taken and shown in the You Tube. Any way it is not in India. Moreover, I could see a live telecast of a jail in which the prisoners were most cruelly tortured. There also I have no idea about the country where such a scene has been videographed.

Concurrently with the torture news, I could listen to the torture death of a person in police custody and the difficulties which the C.B.I. faced to take action against two senior police officials of the Indian Police Service . Torturing in police custody is a crime in India from 1860 when the Indian Penal Code came into being. It was due to the recommendation of the Torture Commission instituted by the British in 1855 to inquire into the alleged torture in police custody in the erstwhile Madras State.

I used to teach police officials about James’s Law of Police Interrogation-i.e., the Police Defence Mechanisms(PDMs) cause Suspect’s Defence Mechanisms(SDMs) which in turn cause the PDMs and the process goes on until one of them is made inactive or inoperative. In other words, police interrogation becomes successful if and only if the defence mechanisms found working in the suspects is made inactive or inoperative.[ See Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and refer police interrogation] It is a law which gives a theoretical basis for police interrogation and it helps the police interrogators to apply the law in their scientific and psychological interrogation.

For applying the above law in practical police work, police interrogators need to undergo special training. The police officials should be academically qualified and qualitatively suitable to become professional interrogators. There should be special recruitment to the post of police interrogators and the law should be amended to that effect. Instead, the approach today seems to be to train police officials as Jack of ALL Trades and Master of NONE. Resultantly, they starve on Sundays as the saying goes. Unless and until professional interrogators are recruited and appointed-the law on interrogation is amended-the curse of torturing the suspect in police custody will continue to haunt the investigation works. The crime will be a perpetual persecutor for the police and the killer for the people in police custody. What to do and how to go about?