Vulnerable sections have historically remained prone to exploitation in all the societies. J&K is no exception. Despite innumerable laws, constitutional safeguards and a set of institutional mechanisms, the exploitation continues unabated. Off late, however, a series of crimes were reported across the state that are spine-chilling.
One of these crimes involved a carpenter with king-size ambitions who murdered a entire Mumbai family and took over whatever they had. This crime has added to the J&K’s notoriety amongst TV Indian viewers because the story remained on screens for a long time and will take some more time to reach its logical conclusion when the killer will reach the gallows.
But crimes not involving murder are no less horrendous. In Kalakote, a young girl was allegedly taken by her teachers to the school where they would teach her, pushed her into a car and later gang raped her. A delayed police action triggered such a personal crisis for the victim that she consumed poison and killed herself.
The suicide came within weeks after a brothel was discovered by the police in main Rajouri township that cops would run with the help of male and female SPOs. Well before the investigations into the cartel would start, police dismissed the SPOs from service thus devouring the immunity that cops usually enjoy in J&K. Now the police must investigate the cartel fully to the satisfaction of the society that is seeking a fair and transparent probe into the shady part-time the accused indulged in.
A similar cartel exists in Udhampur, and police have been investigating it for many months now. In neighboring Kishtwar, a minor was pushed into the flesh trade and she somehow escaped to tell her story. Police registered a case and during investigations it was revealed that a Deputy Commissioner rank officer was among her exploiters. Police did not act till the accused officer fled away.
The law enforcement agencies should have taken a lesson from what happened in Kashmir a few years back. As the police started investigating a cell phone video clip, it discovered a larger cartel involving politicians, officials, security men and the vagabonds who were surviving on the trade. It created a situation that Kashmir was on fire for many days forcing a situation in which CBI was tasked to investigate the matter.
It is a different story that how the best federal investigating agency managed the probe and how the case was shifted out of Kashmir. It might take a year more for the court to conclude the trial and pass its verdict.
Women form a vulnerable section of any society but their well being is an emotional issue with all the societies. For the wellbeing of the society, law enforcement agencies must crush perpetrators of crimes against them, especially the organized crimes.
