Limitations of the police

Delhi was hit on 29/10. Precious lives were lost. After a few days and arrests, life will move on as usual in Delhi.
Will the citizens ever know who carried out the blasts and how the state is gearing up to prevent any such incident in future?
The police is left to investigate and conclude as it desires. Some conclusions regarding the possible perpetrators have already been made.Soon there will be arrests and the case will head for court for prosecution.
The moot issue is that the police is not the right agency to carry out such investigations. To arrive at the truth, civil society participation is a must, and the police is ill-suited to enlist its support.
Having been part of the investi-gations into the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai, I feel there is a need to get independent views rather than leave the entire episode to the police.
It is important to establish which organisations are behind these acts, what their motivations are and what their modus operandi is. Mere suggestions and some news stories by informed journalists and experts are not the solution.
Insinuations regarding involvement or otherwise of any organisation can cause much more harm than good in the current situation. Citizens who have been the victims have a right to know.
Sharing information with them will, in turn, help the police or any investigative agency. However, the police, as per criminal procedure code, cannot reveal any such information to anyone except the court.
Strangely, the question of an independent judicial inquiry has never arisen in the bomb blast cases ��� be it the 1993 bomb blasts or recent blasts at Gateway of India in Mumbai, cinema halls or marketplaces in Delhi.
In contrast, cases of minor rioting and corruption (Tehelka) have persuaded the government to appoint independent commissions. Surprisingly, political parties have never called for an independent inquiry into bomb blast incidents.
One may argue as to what will come out of these commissions of inquiry. At the outset they provide an independent means of verification and investigation and a secure forum for independent witnesses to provide clues.
The Srikrishna Commission, which went into the communal riots in Mumbai, where I too was part of action as DCP in Dharavi, provided an insightful view of the riots.
A number of witnesses, who deposed before Justice Srikrishna, will never come before the police. The report was made public. It clearly established the roles of politicians and the bureaucracy.
Most blast cases are investigated from the point of view of bringing the culprit to book. It is important not only to establish the culprits but also look at the supporting infrastructure.
While it is a crime to cause deaths by blasts, it is also a crime to cause deaths due to negligence and inadequacy of infrastructure. The police certainly is not the agency to look into the latter.
One would like to see a detailed inquiry into the preparedness, as well as the preventive and reactive measures required to meet such situations.
Judicial inquiries in cases of rioting are important to establish a neutral opinion. In the present case they are required to look into much larger aspect of infrastructural response and readiness in the face of such disasters.
But for this inquiry, no one will even know how many people died because of the absence of medical aid. Similarly, there will never be an analysis of what the transport and evacuation system was and should be to cope with such disasters.
On a similar note, there will never be a plan in place which will include police, fire brigade, hospitals, judiciary and more importantly the citizens.
Seeing bomb blasts from the perspective of criminal investigation amounts to missing the bigger picture. The blasts test not only the police's acumen to investigate and prevent such disasters but also the preparedness of civic amenities.
A detailed inquiry into such incidents will provide for a more informed opinion on such episodes. If politicians do not see this as a need, citizens who have braved these incidents deserve a detailed inquiry.
The writer is a former IPS officer.