Is Pinki Pramanik a man or a woman? And did she “rape” her friend? The answer, for now, is: we don’t know. The results of her gender test are with the court, and the verdict will soon emerge. Till then we must follow the dictum that anyone is innocent until proved guilty. The police in West Bengal has signally failed to do this.
Evidence of her harassment is available in graphic detail. A video of her in the nude was circulated on the Internet and via cellphones. A photograph of her showed a male police officer with his hands on her chest. She was detained with male prisoners. As a woman until proved otherwise, none of this should have happened.
Her treatment by the police is not unusual in our country. The police often plays the multiple roles of judge, jury and executioner; and quite often this is even welcomed by many of our countrymen and women, including some in Bollywood. In a nation where the overwhelming sense is that the judicial system is a maze best not entered, many people actually prefer such vigilante justice to no justice at all.
The dangers in giving the power of life, death and liberty to a force renowned for corruption and insensitivity are only now becoming apparent. When any inspector can dispense instant justice as he sees fit, fake encounters, wrongful detention, imprisonment and acute harassment are inevitable. No citizen is safe from the depredations of the police. This is what Pinki Pramanik has been experiencing.