Narcotics, education and the law

280 persons were arrested recently by the Pune police at a rave party near the infotech city. All have subsequently been taken into police custody and we have been reading stories about how all of them were innocent and none of them were part of the group consuming the narcotics that were found at the party.

We have also been subjected to views on how they have received preferential treatment with some being accorded better treatment by the cops than others.

There may be some truths for the police is known to have its own failures and drawbacks. However, while accepting that all of them are not guilty, let us accept that the guilty must be punished and it is not agreeable to consume narcotics. Why then the leniency towards some of them merely because they have the money, education or come from good families? Many of those arrested have been recorded as misbehaving in court, an act that would have fetched any lower criminal a punishment for contempt of court. Others gave false addresses when arrested another act that might have fetched 'special treatment' from the police for their intelligence in doing so.

Many of them as they were released assaulted media persons who filmed their departure from jail, an act that should have attracted sections of the IPC for assault. That mediapersons chose not to and the police did not choose to take action against them for it. And I wonder, why should I feel any sense of sympathy for these people? Are they all really victims of a police force that has nabbed more than they should have? Or are they just people who think that the law is for lesser mortals who do not have the same education as them or the monetary security?

Lets not get into the debate into what is a lesser and greater crime, for a crime is a crime irrespective of who commits it and if found guilty one must pay the price for it. Let the tests come out and the guilty will be separated from the innocent (though money may play an important role in this aspect as well). But let us not get caught in the trap of assuming that all of them are innocent young persons since they are not. Lets hope that justice takes its course just like it would for any other person arrested in a similar case.