Home Page of Dr. Saumitra Mohan

Reforming the Police Saumitra Mohan The debate over police reforms continues to rage. Sleeves have been folded and swords have been pulled for a one-to-one duel on either side of the fence and there are some straight on the fence, still undecided as to which side should they join. In the meanwhile, the Supreme Court has also made it clear that it is not going to compromise on its directions the basics whereof must be implemented within the stipulated time-frame. While it is no one’s case that there should not be any reforms of the police organization at all, crucial as it is to the internal security of the country as well as to the administration of the criminal justice system, as also acknowledged by the various police commissions (both national and state ones), National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), and Justice Malimath Committee on Criminal Justice Reform. So, it is more in the fitness of things that the ongoing debate on police refor...

Battleground Nandigram Saumitra Mohan In the history of West Bengal, 14th March, 2007 shall be remembered as a momentous day but for negative reasons when about 14 people fell prey to police firing while many more were injured. These people were those agitating against the so-called acquisitions of land for a proposed Special Economic Zone for Salim Group, an Indonesian multi-national company, in the remote Nandigram village of East Medinipur district. Police, administration and government, naturally, were all roundly criticized for the sanguinary fall-out. But we need to put certain things in perspective before better being able to appreciate the compulsions of use of force over there. Memory fails one when one tries to recollect such ‘brutal’ police action in West Bengal in recent past except during the hey days of Naxal violence in the sixties. Administration and police as an inalienable part thereof has been reasonably very disciplined and liberal, while dealing with such...