Chennai murders are dent in city's reputation: It's time for Jayalalithaa to crack the whip

One of the major claims of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa before the recent assembly elections that people seem to have believed was that the law and order situation in the state had improved during her time compared to the previous regime of the DMK. But, the shocking murder of a girl at a train station on Friday and the preceding spate of murders of some lawyers in Chennai have dented her claim and long-standing reputation.

The general impression among Chennaities has always been that Jayalalithaa is good for law and order. Although the statewide NCRB statistics may not be consistent with this trust, there is something visible during Jaya’s rule. Some attribute it to visible policing, as described by a former city police commissioner, while some assume that it is because of the freehand the Police enjoy under Jaya. Earlier this year, Jaya herself had told the assembly that “Tamil Nadu is a haven of peace.” because the police was given full freedom .

Taking pride in improved law and order, she had said: “Public order and incidence of crime are two different things. Though steps to maintain public order are taken, it is not possible to attain a stage where there are no incidences of crime.” She also said that the number of crimes had reduced in her regime.

But the murder of the girl, Swathi, one of the thousands of young middle class IT professionals that commute to the city’s suburbs for work every day, at a train station in front of several people has breached that apparent calm. The same week also saw the murder of four other women elsewhere in the city. Strangely four lawyers were also murdered before these crimes in separate incidents. According to media reports, the city witnessed 13 murders last month. It’s murder galore in a city that had been peaceful till a few days ago.

Among all the murders, Swathi’s death probably created the maximum impact because the incident provoked the latent fear that middle class families in the city harbour. Her profile was what middle class families in Indian cities aspire for. And that some criminal could just hack her to death and run away without getting caught makes them scared. Jaya has to act tough again and do something really drastic.

The spate of murders certainly shows a lull in the strict policing that the city had witnessed over the last few years. Jaya always spoke about law and order as a priority and the people did believe that she was better than anybody else for a peaceful life. In 2011, law and order was one of her poll-planks and every now and then, she had repeated her claims of improving the situation. For instance, during her last tenure, she took pride in how she busted the land-grabbing syndicates that allegedly operated during the DMK-regime and how she restored lakhs of acres of usurped land to thousands of people.

Interestingly in the recent assembly elections, the DMK also attacked Jaya on her land and order performance. MK Stalin, the number two in DMK, quoted crime statistics to prove that the situation worsened during her period.

Swathi’s case certainly shows that something is amiss.

Even after four days after the crime, the police hasn’t been able to find a breakthrough. All that the media has reported so far has been about the jurisdictional details - that the incident occurred at a train station and hence investigation is the responsibility of the railway police. Reportedly, the city police didn’t take up investigation because of this question of jurisdiction.

What the police, in its cold bureaucratic attitude, overlooked was a total lack of investigative capacity of the railway police and the price of inaction. It should have sou moto taken action and investigated. Reportedly, the police didn’t even reach the crime spot for two hours after the incident although it was right in the middle of the city because it thought the Railways would handle it.

Finally, it took a High Court division bench to intervene. The Court asked the city police to take over and told them that it would monitor the case for a few days. What reportedly prompted the court to take action was the city police commissioner’s statement that railway stations were out of the jurisdiction of the city police.

The inertia of the city police shows that either it has lost its vigil or hasn’t read Jaya’s mind in terms of law and order. It’s a matter of her reputation. It’s also strange that she hasn’t pulled up people responsible for this negligence.

The city needs a crackdown, something drastic. In a knee-jerk reaction to the recent murders, the police has rounded up 150 “rowdies”. Many of them will be kept in jail under the Goonda’s Act, but would that help? It’s hard to crack the deep and time-tested politician-criminal-police nexus, but it has to be at least kept under check.

In 2012, shortly after Jaya came to power, five suspects of a bank robbery were shot dead in Chennai. Human rights activists flayed the incident and some even went to court asking for action against the police. However, both the people and the court sided with the police.

That’s what the fear of crime does to people. With Swati’s death, it seems to have returned.