Kerala Tips

In Trivandrum edition of newspapers, the goonda menace is always in the front page of the “city edition”. There are high tech goondas who has nothing to fear from police (since they pay well) and then there are politically connected goondas who has good political protection. Due to lack of political will and lack of courageous and independent police force, goondas are having a free run in Kerala.

Some of the  immediate steps to be taken are,

• Any goonda with more than 5 serious criminal cases (rape, murder etc.) must be locked up indefinitely (till trials are over).
• Assets of a convicted goonda must be taken over by government. Access to unlimited funds is the biggest problem.
• Speedy trial and conviction in the case of criminals with more than 5 criminal cases.
• In the case of “hired killers” capital punishment must be mandatory. A civil society should consider “hired killing” or “quotation killing” as the worst form of criminal activity.

Some people think that goonda menace won’t affect them. But you will never know when your time will come. Check the real life experience of an engineering student from Trivandrum (CET),

The guy followed and started whacking me with the stick. Initially I shouted out, asking him not to hit me, telling them that I was a nobody (at that time I thought that this was because of the hartal). This was like a reflex action, since on thinking back on these events I never felt my brain giving the commands for me to shout and scream. I had probably got two or three hits then including the one which broke my left forearm. Doctors say that the first instinct when you are about to be hit is to raise the arm which you use for everything up for self protection. I being left handed raised my left arm. I was rolling on the ground when I got my first hit in my face, on my right cheekbone. I fell silent at that point. I could only hear a ringing sound. I stopped feeling pain. Even though I was fully conscious, I didn’t feel any of the subsequent hits. The attackers left me on the road.

The incident above is nowhere near a real goonda attack, but should give you an idea about the menace. The residents of Men’s Hostel are also culprits in this case. It is also notorious for the brutal “ragging” of first year students.

Ragging is another type of goondaism which may force people to take law into their hands.  If your son or daughter is sexually assaulted by a gang of thugs what will you do? What will you do if the principal says – “hey man, forget it. It is part of life”. My opinion is that the hostel warden or the principal should get bigger punishment than the culprits since it happened under their watch and if they try to suppress it.

There are two killings in Trivandrum where the wrong guy was killed by a “quotation team”. In one of these cases, the brother of the person killed took his revenge by killing one of the gang members. Remember, you and me could be next.

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