Eunuchs rob office goers on busy Hyderabad street

Through this blog post, I want to draw the attention of civic authorities and police department in Hyderabad and particularly Cyberabad, about the rising menace of eunuchs and to what extent it has escalated.

To start with, these eunuchs are not the ones who are biologically different from others. These eunuchs are actually males who dress like female and cover their face with horribly bad make up. They mostly roam in a group of three, four or more, during peak office hours near Cyber Towers and Hitech City flyover in Hyderabad.

Their main target is office goers, school students and vulnerable women who cross this busy junction everyday with a purpose.

Earlier, these eunuchs used to request people to donate some money at will, but now they have gained enough confidence with the city police department doing nothing to stop their wicked act. Surprisingly, now they have literally started robbing easy victims on broad daylight.

For instance, one day these eunuchs targeted a young IT professional who just alighted from an auto near this crossing. When they saw the man was unwilling to spare some money, they snatched his mobile phone from his pocket and only gave it back, when he handed a 100 rupee note to them.

On another day, this group targeted a young couple. When the boy didn’t want to entertain them, tried to walk away, one of the eunuch pulled the girl’s hand bag. Being scared the girl started screaming. The boy in a desperate situation gave some money to the eunuch and then the girl got back her bag.

These eunuchs are abusive as well. A woman one day refused to hand over some money to them. Being rejected, three-four eunuchs started hurling abuses at her and making obscene gestures, which is definitely a criminal offence.

These eunuchs being verbally abusive and at times physically attacking people, very few manage to garner the courage to counter them. But, the question is… why these ordinary people who are on streets for a specific purpose should risk their lives to deal with such miscreants. Isn’t it the job of police department to handle these eunuchs strongly and teach them a lesson?        

      

Ban on smoking has gone up in smoke

After crossing lot of hurdles the health minister of India, Mr. Anbumani Ramadoss is finally successful in transforming the law on smoking ban from papers to reality. This was a very tough job for the minister who gathered ire from different sections of the society. Well the anger is true to some extent, especially when the citizens take it as their fundamental right. Who doesn’t smoke? Where you will draw the line? Poor, millionaire, doctors, actors, politicians, govt. officials, teachers, police, criminal, army man, spiritual leaders, women, students and all, smoke to attain ecstasy. Therefore the ban on smoking came over them as a curb on their democracy. Millions in India sportingly avoid standing in queues to vote, but how can they quit smoking?

Annually thousands die due to smoking related diseases in India and the most popular of them is cancer. Interestingly people feel jittery even talking about cancer, but at the same time they are so reluctant about its major cause. Several throw such arguments that ­­­­­--- even smoking is banned cancer can’t be prevented or pollution kills more than smoking. The problem in India is that very few people know little but understands more. To avoid uneasy problem they create their own stories as part of self defence mechanism.

Who cares about the fine? Those who smoke spend thousands or even more in a year on their preferred brands of puff. So only a Rs. 200 fine cannot stop them from smoking in public places. Even the law enforcement body is reluctant. People smoking boldly everywhere, but nobody is there to punish them. Politicians fear that they may lose some loyal voters if they try to become strict. So pretending is the best policy to avoid the situation and let the smoking ban go up in smoke.

Inside the police system

Unfortunately the police department is always shrouded with controversies. Whether it is the infamous Rizwanur case or the brutal firing in Nandigram that killed many people in recent past, the police department is unable to wash its hands of sin. The daily newspapers or the T.V channels are always churning out new stories that glaringly points out at the notorious acts of the police. Taking bribes and hafta from the market is a common business skill of the police, which is well known, thanks to the hindi film industry or Bollywood. It can often be seen in the daylight that some over greedy and irresponsible member of the police family tarnishing the image of Khaki uniform by accepting ten rupees notes from the truck drivers in important street crossings. Sadly there were several incidents where many such police personals were caught raid handed by the public and beaten up in the road before being handed over to the police again.

Here is another instance of a heinous crime (I don’t know whether it should be an appropriate term to describe the situation) that is executed by the police. This was revealed by a police personal on a candid interaction.

Hope, every one has noticed a blackboard in a police station where types of crime and its rate of happening in a particular area are recorded (in Hindi/Bengali films and even in popular T.V serials and soaps this can be often seen). This is maintained by every police station on a daily basis at the end of the day. Now the system is that the head or the Officer in Charge (OC) of a particular police station has to give a summary of the crime record at the end of the day to the head (Boss) of the particular zone, who generally sits in the police headquarter. Although it is a part of the routine, but providing a summary reflects how effective the particular station is in maintaining law and order in the area. The number of arrest or raid in a day indicates the level of efficiency of the staff of a particular police station. The head of police issue number of cases to the OC everyday, and the later has to adhere to the issue diligently.

Naturally, every OC share the pressure with other staffs of the station to show a colourful crime record at the end of the day to impress his/her boss. Now if he/she is unable to show such colourful record then it justifies that he/she is inefficient in shouldering the responsibility.

Interestingly, it is well known that the police maintain a strong liaison with the criminals in order to extract vital information from them. Apart from this the criminals also help the police in another way. If the OC finds that the number of case filed by the station is insufficient in comparison to the number issued by the boss, he shifts to Plan B.

Now what is Plan B?

According to this plan the OC calls up at the criminal bases or the chief of a criminal gang popularly known as bhai or mastan to supply few petty criminals. Following the discussion they both negotiate a deal in this plan where the bhai sends the desired number of criminals from his gang to the police station and the OC in turn assures him of some information about his rival group.

In another plan to fill the magic number the staffs goes out to patrol at night and picks up innocent sleeping vagrants from the streets and put them inside the lock up and file petty criminal cases.

One shocking revelation by the police man during the interaction was that they often pick up young innocent workers from construction sites and file theft and robbery cases against them. These workers, mostly illiterate comes from rural areas found themselves trap in a conspiracy. Next day when these people are presented before the Court of Magistrate as per the law, they are either charged with criminal cases or had to shell out heavy amount to receive bail.

The police station earns praise from the department due to their efficiency and the system runs effectively. Don’t ask about the innocent people who are left behind the bars or who get bail but are left with scars being termed as criminal. The Bollywood filmmakers are there to create blockbusters on them and the nation will get one more hero to worship.