Police is not answerable to MLAs, “Legislators must not interfere in judiciary,” CM Himanta Biswa Sarma 

In the ongoing session at Assam Assembly, the opposition has questioned the government about the recent Police encounters and shootouts. Since the time Himanta Biswa Sarma took charge as the chief minister of Assam, he spoke about empowering and modernisation of Assam Police. 

In the last one month, Police opened fire many times. According to the Police statements, fire was opened either in defence or only when the criminal tried to escape from the custody. Responding to the questions raised by many including Dhing MLA Aminul Islam, Sarma said, “A generalised statements like there is not crime or their are no thieves are misleading. Crime exists and we the lawmakers must not live in denial that there is no crime or criminals in a particular constituency.”

He condemned the fact that Police action is being questioned. “Why fired, who fired, was he really an animal smuggler, these are questions that the judiciary can answer not the legislature. Legislators must not interfere in judiciary. If an MLA feels that the Police exhibited hotheadedness in handling a particular case in his or her constituency or anywhere else, the MLA can knock the doors of judiciary. Under no circumstances, the Police is answerable to the MLAs. Also the MLAs cannot question the Police officials as that itself is a crime under CrPC and IPC,” said Sarma. 

He also added that the Police are doing their jobs. “Police officials do not make the laws we do it following a constitutional and democratic process. If their is a problem with the law we can address it here. Say for example, Supreme Court says trucks cannot carry load more than 9 ton. Now you cannot blame the Traffic Police on duty for booking a truck carrying more than nine ton. If you have a problem with the law, you need to appeal to the judiciary and not target the Police inspector or OC on duty,” added Sarma. 

He urged the MLAs to further empower the Police department and work towards reducing crime rates and not hiding it.