Why unnatural is natural for cops?

Why unnatural is natural for cops?

Preetu Nair, TNN

PANAJI: Of the 10 murders that Mahanand Naik has confessed to, five were registered as cases of unnatural death (UD) by the police and the cases were kept “open ended” for years.

Even as senior officials have called for the case papers to investigate into the circumstances under which the cases were registered as UDs, women activists say that dismissing a case as UD is common practice with the police. Sources say that over 70 cases are registered as UDs annually.

Sabina Martins of Bailancho Saad said, “This has been our major grievance with the police. Whenever there is a woman’s death and it’s a difficult case, rather than investigate, the police register it as UD. In the absence of public pressure, the police don’t investigate seriously, even when there is enough evidence pointing towards murder.”

Auda Veigas of Bailancho Ekvott, who has been a panch witness for the police in several cases, agreed and said, “Whenever an unknown young woman’s body is found, the police immediately conclude that it may be a ‘outsider’s body’. Instead of investigating it as a case of murder, they dismiss it as an unnatural death and terminate investigations.”

Explaining the reasons behind the police tendency to register potential murders as UDs, former SP Alex Rasquinha said it is to avoid extensive paper work and to project a lower crime rate. “Once a case is registered as a murder, there are several formalities. Besides, a UD doesn’t reflect on the crime graph. The police don’t want to show an increase in murders with a low detection rate as it signifies a lack of supervision,” he said.
He added that the most common excuse the police adopt in keeping a case as UD is that the viscera report is awaited.

26 May 2009, The Times of India, Goa edition