ABSTRACT
In September 2011 a bomb exploded outside Delhi High Court just three months after a similar attack at the same spot. The public and the media expressed outrage at the fact that since the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai not one case of terrorism had been successfully investigated by the Indian Police. The failures of security and prevention reignited the debate on the need to reform the Police Service, which has remained largely unaltered since the days of British Rule. The same Metropolitan Force, Delhi, came under renewed criticism just a month later when a trader from the old spice market in the city was flagged down by police and an officer shot him three times whilst trying to take some gold chains from around his neck. The death of the market trader came just one week after a truck driver was beaten to death by police because he refused to pay a 5,000 rupee bribe to the constables. These are not isolated incidents. A 2009 report by Human Rights Watch documents the ongoing corruption and violations carried out by the police in India which range from a failure to investigate reported crime through extortion to extrajudicial killing. These abuses have also provoked calls for police reform from India Against Corruption, the group led by Anna Hazare, whose hunger strike brought severe difficulties to the Congress-party-led government in late 2011.
