Yes, the photo of an alleged thief tied to a chair with no clothes on is shocking. So we must all condemn in the strongest possible terms the indecent ways of the police officers responsible for this. Not only did they subject a citizen of a democratic country to an inhumane and degrading treatment, but, in so doing, they have inadvertently turned a thrice-convicted criminal into a public hero. Yes, the law and order situation has been frighteningly deteriorating and the police have our full support to crack down on crime. But they can only do so within the parameters of the law.

The public outrage that the publication of the incriminating photo has rightly generated has had an almost expected outcome: vultures crawling out of the woodwork of the political arena to hunt for political mileage.  

So Ravi Rutnah and Sanjeev Teeluckdharry swapped their suits for the black robe and started tripping over themselves to be seen by the side of the one whose photo has shocked public opinion. Rutnah has given an ultimatum to the police commissioner to “suspend the oppressors and torturers”, otherwise, he would take legal action against him personally – an ultimatum which has expired by the way and we are still waiting for the threats to be translated into action. Teeluckdharry went further in furthering his career by stating that if he were the attorney general – hint, hint – he would put the country back on track in 30 days! Thank you on behalf of his colleague – Attorney General Maneesh Gobin – and on behalf of his leader, who has led the country off track!

While I find the sudden patriotic concern expressed by our MPs rather endearing, I can’t help but wonder in which funk hole they had been hiding in the last few years. How come it is only now that they have suddenly discovered that strip-searching citizens is against human rights? Where exactly were they when their own colleague, Showkutally Soodhun’s complaint resulted in over 15 cops landing at Hassenjee and Farihah Ruhomally’s place, two innocent people who had never had any problem with the law? Were they on a different planet when we exposed how the police strip searched them for absolutely no reason? Where were they when Ish Sookun was strip searched eight times during his 10-day detention? Were they fast asleep when Manou Bheenick was strip searched in one police station and shifted to another one to be submitted to the same degrading treatment for the second time in the same night? And perhaps it was out of pudeur that they looked the other way when Laina Rawat, while pregnant, was strip searched in the Moka Detention Centre! What is more, all these people who had their most private parts looked into very intimately were innocent and are now suing the state for the degrading treatment they were subjected to!

Under which bed were Rutnah and Teeluckdharry hiding when people died in detention centres – one having supposedly hanged himself with a towel tied to a sink recently?

Yes, what goes on behind the closed doors of police stations and detention centres for those who are not drug traffickers benefiting from the complicity of crooked lawyers is not pretty. This time we have a photo that depicts the level of ugliness and barbarity. We have the right to be revolted. But those who have been silent all these years throughout all the politically-motivated degrading behaviour are accomplices. They should not use this opportunity to further their agenda. It’s as revolting as the story told by the indecent photo.

Provisional charges have to be looked into. Strip searching innocent citizens systematically has to stop. Former Judge Vinod Boolell reminds us in this week’s edition of Weekly that “Though the police have the power to carry out a strip search, this power cannot be considered as an obligatory routine exercise.” And the police have to be made accountable. But this debate should not be diluted with politicians’ inordinate ambitions.  

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