Dear Shri K. Venkateshan
I feel terribly sorry about your future career. You missed a chance of winning a police medal – or even a Padmashri. Even though you got custody of the five rights activists (Varvara Rao Gautam Navlakha, Sudha Bharadwaj, Vernon Gonzalves and Arun Ferreira) – you failed to bump them off in a false `encounter’, the oft-repeated act for which your police force, along with the Indian state’s military apparatus, have gained international reputation. Regrettably, the Supreme Court came in your way.
Now, you’ll have to go through the long and laborious process of producing “incriminating evidence about weapons…training of young men…” (which you claim to have in your possession,according to your press conference statement). As you know very well from your experience as a veteran cop, you’ll have to manufacture such evidence, by capturing young men and produce them as witnesses to testify under duress that they were all trained by the above five rights activists.
But then, you may not be sure whether the court will accept your `evidence.’ To be on the safe side, shouldn’t you send your cops to Delhi – this time with English translation of your Marathi orders – to raid the houses of the judges who are hearing your case ? Better be fast – before September 5 ! This may assure you promotion in the police hierarchy under the present regime.
Sumanta Banerjee is a political and civil rights activist and social scientist
