[HumJanenge] ACCIDENTS AND ARRESTS - CAN THIS ISSUE BE RAISED UNDER RTI ACT ?

 

     ACCIDENTS AND ARRESTS - CAN THIS ISSUE BE RAISED UNDER RTI ACT ?

I am concerned  about the following practice  and I wonder whether I can ask the concerned government department under RTI Act to explain the action.

I would welcome any advice in this regard.

 

It has become a regular practice for the Tamil Nadu police to arrest the Managing Director of a company or Principal of an educational institution  in case of any accidents happening in the premises of the institution  or in any activity even remotely connected with the institution.  Recently,  head of a school in Chennai was arrested when a student died in the swimming  pool within the campus and head of an educational institution  was arrested when a few workers died in the building construction activity being carried out for the institution . In another case , principal of a school was arrested when the student died in the school bus accident.  Many other similar instances have taken place.

 

Of course, in the case of any accident taking place in the government  promoted  institution , no government officer has been arrested.  When several persons were burnt in a train accident, no officer of the railways was arrested .

 

The police now adopt the practice of arresting the chief officer of the private institutions even before conducting an enquiry and establishing his link to the accident. This knee jerk action of the police appears to be arbitrary, unjustified and has created great fear in the minds of many persons serving in private companies and institutions.

 

When people are arrested before  completion of enquiry and  even  when they cooperate with the investigation,  it sends wrong signals and  results in violation of the established practices of law enforcing agencies.

 

It is high time that there must be some strong protest about such arbitrary and whimsical action of the police and  proper guidelines must be laid in such cases.

 

The police is well within its rights to enquire and file cases in case of suspicion against anyone  in case of such accidents,   but it is absolutely improper to arrest as if they are criminals or law breakers  before completing the investigation.

 

Further, obviously, the police are making a difference in their approach  between the case of private institutions and government bodies. One wonders whether the police would arrest any bureaucrat ,  serving as Managing Director of a government owned company, in the event of any unfortunate accident taking place there.

 

N.S.Venkataraman