Crime and Punishment are two sides of a coin, absolutely inseparable from each other. A crime automatically results in punishment, but, not so at least in India.
Crime has always been committed in the world and, everywhere there are laws to deal with the criminal, book him and punish him. However, inspite of stringent punishments, crime continues to flourish everywhere in the world. This is true to every country of the world but, the Indian scenario is a little different.
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In India also there are detailed laws to deal with criminals of all hues and colours, and of different magnitudes. The laws do exist in law books but, either they are redundant or irrelevant to the country.
Here, in India we continue to hear of crime and the connected criminals but, we almost never hear of any punishment to any of these criminals. Why and how is this situation existing in the country is a topic to debate and ponder upon.
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This situation is true to almost all cases except very exceptional cases like the murder of Gandhiji or Indira Gandhi. Only in such rare cases we see the criminals being punished but what about the umpteen criminals we hear of daily. We hear of the crime, we hear of the criminal, but we never get to hear about the punishment meted out to him.
This being the ground reality of crime and punishment in India let us try to analyze how it has come to this passe. A criminal commits a crime, he seems to be confirmed as the criminal yet, no law of the land can punish him. What is this mystery about the Indian legal system. This situation has come to being because of many reasons. This is because in the last few decades the criminals are being left free with impunity, and, this in turn is because the corruption bug has bitten all.
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There is a very deep corruption ingrained in the Indian system of crime and punishment. If the criminal has access to any highly placed individual, he is sure to be acquitted. If the criminal has money power, he himself can purchase a lawyer, and, if he has muscle power, he can get any lawyer or judge killed. With this much back up support of people who matter, who can ever reach the punishment due to him.
In this strange scenario, with everyone trying to save himself from the ire of the criminal obviously succumbs to the fancies of the criminal, and he is left unharmed, once again ready to commit another crime. This allowance to a criminal has encouraged crime to such an extent that, now, everyone knows who is the criminal but no one can dare to say or do anything about it. This sort of relaxation given to the criminals has given an impetus to crime and now it is difficult to redeem the situation.
Besides the obvious corruption in the system there is another factor unique about our Indian legal system, and that is inordinate delays in the hearings of cases and the final judgements. When a case takes decades to reach any conclusion, it gives enough time to the criminal to manipulate, purchase and do whatever else is required to be done to save himself. With these decades long delays even the public becomes less aggressive against the criminal and the case becomes lukewarm. This goes to the obvious advantage of the criminal.
Thus, in India, laws are just as good as they are anywhere else in the world but, people dealing with criminals are not like their counterparts around the world.
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The cause for this is not just an occurrence but, it is made to occur. The dismal situation exists because people involved want it to be so. This in turn is because all the parties involved are getting advantage from the delays. Since all are getting their pound of flesh, no one in the chain is interested in the finalisation of cases.
This unique situation of the Indian legal system gives an unabated boost to crime and criminals. When it has become clear that, no one is ever punished for any crime, there is encouragement for more and more people to enter the arena. If we want to have less crime then, we will, on the one hand have to have speedy judgement, without any favours to people who matter, or those who occupy high places.
Next what we have to do is to remember that our Constitution gives every citizen equality before law. This is however only on paper in India. This must become a reality only then, we will be moving towards justice. In order to reduce crime we must see that punishment is fast and given justly. This will deter new comers at least from entering into the world of crime.