Crime and law are partners bound by vigorous handcuffs. They are two sides of the same coin – opposites, linked so inextricably, that the boundaries seem to blur and like Orwell’s pig and man one cannot tell which is which.

Nowhere is this seamless blending more true than in India where the seats of administration and thereby law are densely occupied by  unproven and yet- to- be- proven criminals. The Constitution itself grants them the right to rule.

In such a state of law, the increasing spate of murders and suicides galloping in outrageous succession on a daily basis must not strike despair. However, these are not hardened criminals but our everyday naval officers, aspiring entertainers, wannabe small town migrant girls with stars in their eyes, ubiquitous IT couples, housewives, corporate managers… it could well be you and me.

The surprise is also in the nature of the crime, such, that has been hitherto found only in the annals of serial and psychopathic killers who need to find ingenious ways to stimulate or pacify their chaotic minds. It is not the crime of passion in finding the killer’s girlfriend with her lover that startles you, but the manner in which the body of the victim is then cold bloodedly hacked into appropriate tidbits to fit into carry bags and transported to be burnt in a remote forest. After that, the methodical clean up, the shopping, the charade of lodging missing complaints using the aid of unsuspecting friends adds to the drama.  It is the stuff Hadley Chase novels are made of.

Coming on the heels of this crime is the Arushi murder case where the girl’s parents are suspect and the police are arrest-happy. Our police remand and then ask questions. When nothing is found there is no apology on the part of the police or the judge for the arrest of or trauma to the victim. There is no compensation either by the state as in the West. Under these circumstances there is no special care taken to ascertain facts and the police enjoy wide unfettered draconian powers without accountability. Our CSI non-existant. Our police work is all about 'beating' confessions out of suspects rather than painstakingly collecting forensic, circumstantial and documental evidence that would be admissable in a court,  before confronting and arresting a suspect.

 Loss of memory regarding the exact chain of events and the details of what clothes the Talwars wore on the night of the murder are seen as major covering up of facts. One cannot begin to comprehend the agony and horror of parents in a situation of finding their only child dead with a slit throat. Their daze must be a part of their survival mechanism. I remember the shock of a parked car pulling out and hitting me in motion. After chasing the car for a good mile, I had no memory of its colour so I am not sure how reliable memory would be when one goes into devastating shock like the murder of a child.

The police are at sea. They have nothing to go on except suspicions. They have no explanations and they expect ‘cooperation’ and one wonders if that is some euphemism for sub radar pressure to get the suspect to confirm some of their pet theories. When the police botch up they are given gentle raps on the knuckles in the form of transfers, whatever that means. Meanwhile, reputations have been besmirched beyond repair and no on pays. The media abets this homicide by the law, changing colours with a temerity, that would put a flamboyant chameleon to shame.

Even if one were to forgive some extremes in murder investigations, cast your regard on the growing menace of arrests for “abetting suicides”. Abetting is defined by the dictionary as approve, encourage, or urge an action or plan. Woe betide the man who has had an affair, been a friend, a sympathetic colleague, mingling single man or divorced ex- husband if the woman in a fit of anger or depression decides to take her own life. His arrest is almost immediate under section 107 of the IPC. He is then paraded by the media for all he is worth. His family, friends, ex girl friends, estranged wives, online buddies are called, questioned, interviewed, slurred, suspected without compunction. His crime?  He refused to marry the girl who died. Arjun Menon is the latest of the victims of this kind of knee jerk arrests. However, the MLA husband of Padmapriya the latest latest among the suicide belles, has been spared arrest – a point to note your Honour. Interestingly, no woman is picked up when a man she rejected commits suicide.

So if you have the misfortune of having an affair with a weak woman you are looking at your house being searched, your computer hardware probed, your cell phone records scrutinized, being spurned by your friends, shamed in your community and shunned by everyone. 

All your women friends stand the risk of being interrogated by our diligent police force because you are not supposed to have any friends of the opposite sex. This could inadvertently damage their reputations by insinuating unhealthy speculations. It is all part of police work because you refused to marry someone or elope with her or whatever and the woman took her life.

Be ready also for financial ruin. You could lose your job, have a jail record which you will need to disclose in a lot of places, you need money to bribe your way out of jail and bad press, not to speak of hefty criminal lawyer fees.  Then there will be righteous women’s groups and relentless relatives of the dead girl baying for your blood long after the dust has settled.

What kind of archaic law is this? Don’t these victims have any rights? Who is going to question the intrusion on privacy? The malicious slander? How does a person outlive that? Who will compensate the injustice and who will pay?

The heat generated by these crime investigations never let up. For weeks, the channels go after the whodunit with salacious delight. Every moment is a screeching ground breaking speculation. The reporters are like vultures asking the most ridiculous questions. I particularly remember that goon Arnab of ‘Time Now’ asking Nupur Talwar “What did you feel when you saw your dead daughter?” I wonder at his sanity.

Older sensational cases like the Afzal guru case have lost their sheen and simmer on the back burners. Kasliwal’s rape victim is suddenly missing and so there is a possibility of a ‘no show no case’ when it comes up for hearing. Soon the present sansanikez cases will become low in visibility, when fresh gossip comes up and  eager audiences lap up new salacious episodes in true soap opera tradition, waiting eagerly for the next installment. Violence and sex in real life is unbeatable. We are all voyeurs even as we make those sympathetic noises.

And so, the brides burn, husbands rape wives and the voiceless screams of abused children get smothered under the family umbrella.  Ministers not disclosing their wealth are forgotten, and even as the PM mildly bleats out his austerity measures, they  get political immunity. R.R. Patil dithers over the arrest of  Raj Thakeray and his goons, who so blatantly beat up innocent Bihari labourers on camera.

Crime stalks our lives in various forms – committed by everyone either through commission or omission.  The law? What law? When the law is guilty, who, as Lady Macbeth averred, can call it to account?