Today’s news of a 20-year-old girl set ablaze by her stalker in Muzaffarpur is the simplest explanation to people who hail Telangana police as heroes for the encounter killing of rapists as to why it is not in any way proof of their heroism. Police force should be hailed as heroes when they do their duty of preventing crimes from happening in the first place. Like with Priyanka Reddy, whose family was referred from one station to another because the man-missing case they wanted to file half an hour after they lost touch with the victim “didn’t come in their station limits”. A girl went missing and their priority was their station limits, not coordinating with anyone they had to and finding the girl before anything untoward happened to her. 10 days later they shot the rapists and killed them and we forgot that they had a role to play in her murder!

Just like in this case, the culprit has been stalking the victim for 3 long years and has tried to assault her multiple times. She sought help from the police force, but in vain. This poor girl stopped going to college and stayed home because she was scared while the culprit roamed around free to go after her again and again! Imagine that! And now when she is fighting for her life, are we still going to hail the police force as heroes if they shoot the culprit dead?? Whose fault was it in the first place????

I do understand if common man loses trust in the shoddy law and order system in our country. But that shouldn’t be reason to celebrate something drastic the police force does afterwards and in turn, help them hide their ineffectiveness in preventing crimes and fostering a sense of security among us.