Thread: Mental health crises; A policing perspective
1- Our culture is prevalently inconsiderate to mental health & suicidal subjects. We hardly pay any heed to those who suffer from mental health predicaments. Since talking abt mental health concerns is practically a taboo,

2- those who suffer silently, mostly take refuge in spiritual healing, because our nation still at large believes its more of jins, bhots, than a real brain messing up with a person.
Police is a section of the society that has the same familiarization with this subject because

3- our penal & procedural laws push the same fringe of understanding of this matter.
Information about a murder always jolts the police hierarchy of that particular area where the action takes place. Wireless sets fixed at Police mobile vehicles, cell phones all go off with

4- buzzers, every senior starts asking about the location of the crime scene & the position of the concerned SHO
In routine, SHO leaves every other task & hurries up towards the crime scene, passes instructions to different teams to; secure the crime scene, calls the PFSA team,

5- & escorts seniors to the crime scene
The SHO at the crime site, takes the dead body into custody, consoles the bereaved family, collect evidence & information about the accused & constitute raiding teams. The arrest of accused, recovery of weapon, & investigation of the case;

6- which are in actuality very strenuous tasks. Apart from that, no matter what the case SHO has to think of answers to all possible questions to be asked by seniors related to the murder.
Now, the same said possible murder case, if it turns out to be a suicide. Phew!!!

7- Phew a sigh of relief, his gloomy eyes turns all radiant as if a big burden has been taken off his shoulders.
For the SHO its one less case to be investigated, one less murder to be traced, one less issue to be discussed in crime meetings. Because it gets as simple as that,

8- the law dictates, in case of the suicide, the concerned SHO, according to section 174 CrPC, has to immediately inform the nearest magistrate empowered to hold an inquest, & note down injuries, bruises & the type of weapon used to report the findings to the concerned magistrate

9- Proceedings u/s 174 only help to ascertain the apparent cause of death.
Taking advantage of these legal hiatuses several than many honor killing cases have been painted as suicides in our country for a coverup, because calling it a suicide makes it easy for the culprits

10- to escape the law.
However, in investigating most suicide calls previously, the police have managed to find several "suicidal death" to be a homicide with the help of circumstantial & corroborative evidence.

11- Surprisingly, an attempt to commit suicide is a crime under section 325 of CrPC in our country, instead of providing counseling & psychological help to the victims of depression & as a result of that a suicidal attempt, our law wants them to be punished for it.

12- For us to address this very pressing mental health issue, an attempt to commit suicide must be decriminalized & Police with help of a panel of psychologists, physiatrists & public health experts must be authorized to investigate the reasons behind every case of suicide

13- furthermore accumulate an annual report on the grounds behind every suicide and attempted suicide case, to help researchers, government & organizations who are trying to find the root causes of the problem, to help & counter the prevalence of suicides in our society because

14- every suicide has a murderer (that needs to be Investigated and traced); be it the society, low grades, poverty, harrasment, peer pressure or social stigmas.