These and other questions were raised by Dilip Shrirao, DCP of Zone 3 at a debate on `Human Rights Violation under Police Custody' on Sunday, organised by the Young Giants of Byculla at the Orient Club.

Shrirao said it has become fashionable to criticise the police and make them scapegoats for any kind of trouble. The ground realities were actually different as police work under great limitations, he added.

``Most complaints we receive are non-cognizable. Wives complain about their husbands not returning home, or the blaring noise from a neighbour's television. In most cases, we cannot initiate a probe unless the court orders it. But we are unreasonablyexpected to take action the moment a case is registered. Inevitably, civil cases are mixed up with criminal ones,'' pointed out Shrirao.

Another common grouse is that police let criminals off the hook. ``If an offence is bailable, we don't have an option, because then human rights activists raise their voices,'' he countered.

Shrirao said factors generating crime like slums, unemployment and poverty are beyond the control of the police. ``A 38,000-strong force controlling a population of 1.5 crore is a unique feat. But we always get brickbats, never praise. A lot of our work is silently done, something that is never publicised.''

Arguing from the other side of the fence, Rashmi Oza, Advocate at the High Court, Mumbai, and a professor at KC Law College, said a National Police Commission report revealed that 60 per cent of arrests by the police in the country were unjustified, and the highest number of custodial deaths occur in Maharashtra.

``Handcuffing without any reason is a common human rightsviolation, while custodial offences are getting worse, what with women being raped at police stations or at police camps in rural areas. For example, in Rajasthan, there have been cases where women in custody were stripped and paraded naked. Even pregnant women are not spared,'' she said, adding that Maharashtra does not even have a State Human Rights Commission.