‘A’MORAL POLICING IN HYDERABAED

By Ayaan Khan & M H Ahssan

The local police seems to be working extra hard to maintain law and order in the city these days, much more than what their duty demands, or so it seems. Cops are now cracking the whip, rather literally, on the city youth for “offences’’ such as taking a stroll in the night or two people of the opposite sex seen together after “respectable’’ hours. After the crackdown on drunken driving, it is moral policing that the city police seems to have trained its guns on.

Needless to say, it makes good business sense for cops as innocent but law ignorant couples often bribe the cops only to reach home instead of behind bars. Take for instance, a midnight crackdown at Sindhi colony area in Secunderabad. A young couple sitting on the stairs outside a restaurant at 1.30 am, waiting for an auto, were ‘caught’ by local cops who forced the couple to either go to the police station with the police team or pay up a fine of Rs 2,000.

Let alone allowing the girl to go to her house, they even took the liberty of commenting on the girl’s character. Even when the boy showed the two cops his driving license (as against the office identity card the cops asked) and explained the situation wherein he had come to drop the girl to her house in that colony and was unable to find an auto for Banjara Hills, they refused to listen and used foul language through the conversation. After half an hour of explaining and ‘haggling’, the poor couple ended up bribing them with Rs 400 only to escape the shame of being bundled up in the police van or being falsely charged for behaving ‘indecently’ in public.

In another case at Jubilee Hills road, a young couple was harassed by cops when at 1 am, returning from a restaurant, they stopped the car on the roadside to have a conversation, with the car windows open. The couple neither broke any traffic rule, nor did they cause any inconvenience to anybody who passed by, but the police must have sensed something really suspicious as three cops parked their bikes right in front of the couple’s car and started accusing them, again of ‘staying up late’ and ‘indecent behaviour’, giving the couple little chance to explain the situation.

This time again, the cops took a good Rs 500 from them and then let them go. Numerous such cases have become an everyday affair on Necklace road after midnight. With a number of places to hang out on this stretch including a multiplex, it is only natural that couples are often spotted there after 12 pm. However, far from being a pleasant area to walk and chat, this road has now become a place that should be avoided after 12 pm, especially if you are a couple.

“The cops are more to be feared here than anti-social elements. Try having an ice-cream at any one of the many icecream carts that are open at midnight, the police will actually shout at you ordering you to go away. If you argue or ask for time, you are threatened to be put into jail,’’ says Shruti Pahwa, who likes to visit this part of the city with her friend, adding that she too has coughed up money to escape ‘punishment’ on many occasions.

Denizens have now become so familiar with this moral-policing in the city that the parking guards in multiplexes now give special instructions to couples to keep their movie tickets for after 10 pm shows till they reach home lest the police should harasses them.

In yet another case at Paigah colony in Secunderabad, things took an ugly turn when the couple refused to go to the police station, didn’t bribe and demanded the charge against them. Two young techies after returning from their office in Hi Tech city, were walking hand-in-hand just near their flats, with office bags and identity cards. The cops demanded a reason why they weren’t home at that time, told them to ‘behave themselves’ in ‘residential areas’ and even commented on how people from “northern” states “corrupt the locals” in Hyderabad. Enraged, the couple had a longish verbal fight with the cops, with the former refusing to give in to the police’s repeated threats of taking them to jail. Well, the case was ‘resolved’ without any fine or bribe but only at the cost of more than half the residents in the areacoming to know it. “I felt embarrassed of people in my colony for weeks after that,” says the girl.

Incidentally, no law prohibits anybody to stay out at any time after midnight, says A.S.C. Wesley, DCP, Task force but adds that it is only advisable for people not to be out on the road late at night. Even the definition of indecent behaviour doesn’t apply to a couple sitting hand-in-hand unless it bothers people around them. In fact, he says, asking the girl to come along to the police station is not at all necessary in any such case that happens during late hours.

Reacting to the issue, V Sandhya, President of Progressive Organisation of Women, says she feels strongly against such moral policing adding that it is not a part of their duty to keep a check on one’s personal matters. “The police should only go by the rule book when taking preventive actions to curb crime. But moral policing ultimately is good only for cops’ pockets,” she says.

POLICE DO ‘FINE’ DUTY, RAKE IN CRORES
While the recession has most people worried about uncertain salaries, low profits and job cuts, the city police are laughing all the way to the bank. In 2008 the Hyderabad police earned a whopping sum of Rs 15.59 crore while their counterparts at Cyberabad made a neat Rs 7 crore from challans. While the Hyderabad traffic police registered 11.3 lakh cases, the Cyberabad police registered 3.38 lakh cases last year.

According to V Ashok Reddy, additional deputy commisioner of police (traffic), Cyberabad, the revenue figures from challans have improved considerably in the span of a year. “In 2007 our revenue was Rs 2.5 crore to Rs 3 crore while in 2008 we recovered more than Rs 7 crore from challans for offences related to traffic violations,’’ he said. Proud achievement that.

Well, the traffic police said that the most number of challans are distributed for offences like parking in ‘No Parking’ Zone, entering in a ‘No Entry’ Zone, driving a two wheeler without a helmet and a four wheeler without seat belts and of course driving under the influence of alcohol, while cases of speaking over a mobile phone while driving in the city were quite low.

The New Year also brought much cheer for the traffic police, as their special drive against drunken driving received a boost with inebriated revellers across the twin cities helping their cause. The Hyderabad police registered 655 cases and the Cyberabad police recorded 134 cases of drunken driving on New Year’s eve and the total revenue earned by the Cyberabad police on December 31 alone was Rs 1.83 lakh. The number of barricades installed by the police on the roads doubled and armed with breath analysers they intercepted two wheelers and four wheelers to keep the high spirits in check.

The special initiative launched by the police to drive away drunken driving in the city consistently contributed to the police coffers in 2008 with a total of 6,362 cases registered by the Cyberabad police. The penalty for drunken driving is a minimum fee of Rs 500 extending upto Rs 2,000 and in some instances even imprisonment. The fine collected through challans is sent to the government treasury.

ON A HIGH
- Hyderabad police earned revenue of Rs 15.59 crore from challans
- Cyberabad police earned Rs 7 crore
- 11.31 lakh challans issued by Hyderabad police in 2008
- 3.89 lakh challans issued by Cyberabad police