The malady of fake encounters

The killing of four rapists by the Telangana police in December 2019 on the outskirts of Hyderabad on the Bengaluru-Hyderabad highway was cheered by locals who went so far as to shower petals on the policemen for their action. Those killed had raped an assistant veterinary surgeon who was on her way back home from the hospital at night.

According to the police, one of the four arrested rapists ventured to snatch a policeman’s rifle to shoot at them, forcing them to retaliate, in which all four were killed.

Last July, dreaded criminal Vikas Dubey was eliminated when he allegedly tried to escape after snatching a policeman’s weapon while the vehicle in which he was being transported from Ujjain toppled near Kanpur. He is reported to have fired at the Special Task Force policemen while escaping in a field. A Deputy Superintendent of Police whom the criminal had killed along with seven other policemen a few days before he was apprehended in Ujjain, is reported to have said that he would break Dubey’s other leg as he was already handicapped in one leg.

The killing of the criminal led to questioning the veracity of the encounter. Media personnel trailing the convoy from Ujjain were not allowed to proceed further after they entered Kanpur. Couldn’t the STF personnel, who are specially selected, apprehend him when he was already handicapped and incapable of running? He must have been handcuffed too.

In February this year, a criminal Girdhari Vishwakarma, who had been accused of murdering a former block president of Mau was shot dead by Lucknow police in the wee hours. He was reportedly being taken to Gomti Nagar at night to recover the weapon used in the murder of the block president. While alighting from the police vehicle near the scene of the encounter, he allegedly snatched the pistol of a policeman and fired at them, forcing them to retaliate. The injured criminal was shifted to the hospital where he died.

Concerned by the “blatant violation of the rule of law” a group known as Constitutional Conduct Group comprising 87 retired civil service officials had written an open letter in July this year “that the present ruling regime in UP has ushered in a model of governance which swerves further and further away from the values of the Constitution and the rule of law with each passing day”. Quoting the data released by the UP Police, the letter states that between 2017 and 2020, there were as many as 6,476 encounters in the state in which 124 alleged criminals were shot dead. Nearly 2,000 were injured in these encounters.

In February 2019, the then Minister of State for Home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir had informed the Rajya Sabha that between 2014 and January 2019, 824 deaths were recorded, of which 250 deaths were in fake encounters. Uttar Pradesh reported 16 deaths between 2014 and 2017. The figures shot up to 65 between 2017 and January 2020, 23 of which were in fake encounters. Soon after Yogi Adityanath took over the chief ministership of UP, he had given clear signals to police hierarchy by warning criminals, “If you commit a crime, you will be knocked off,” And the police complied with his diktats.

More recently, after the present chief minister of Assam assumed charge of the state, he stated in the Assembly that his government would continue with its “zero-tolerance policy” and towards this end, his instructions to the police were clear: “Do not break the law but within the law, you take extreme action, and the Assam government is going to protect you.” He took over on May 10 this year and 33 people have already been shot at. Of them, 15 died, 10 of them being militants.

His directions to shoot those attempting to escape from custody have armed the police personnel with enormous power, which can be misused to the detriment of the criminal justice system in our country. A member of the Assam Human Rights Commission has questioned the need to shoot at a person who, being in police custody, is handcuffed and not be able to flee.

In their bid to impress their political bosses, the police swung into action and arrested 504 persons within two months presumably for their involvement in cattle smuggling, four of whom were injured in police firing. As part of its war against drugs, the Assam police rounded up 1,897 people for drug-related offences. Are we to believe that the previous governments were not concerned about the crimes that were hitherto committed in the state?

Policemen resort to fake encounters with impunity as they do not fear being hauled up for their crimes. It is only when the next of kin of those killed in fake encounters pursue the matter vigorously with the courts that the policemen are tried for criminal acts.

Some of them would flaunt their “encounter specialist” tag and brag about their exploits as if their derring-do had led to the death of the criminals while the truth is that they kill unarmed and helpless criminals after cornering them.

The criminal justice system is so tardy that it takes years to punish the criminals for the crimes committed. The delay in hanging the four rapists of Nirbhaya is a glaring example. It took over seven years to hang criminals convicted of a very heinous crime of brutal rape and murder. And, this, despite the vociferous public outcry and the parents of the victim vigorously pursuing the case in the courts. Needless to mention, Vikas Dubey deserved to be hanged for several heinous crimes but not in a lawless manner as was done. Such elimination of criminals with impunity encourages policemen to set aside the rule of law turning governance into a “jungle raj” which a democratic country can ill-afford.

Political leaders need to desist from encouraging the police to indulge in such wanton acts of fake encounters in the garb of giving them a “freehand” to control crime. Policemen found guilty of fake encounters should be suspended and tried for murder as any other ordinary citizen.

(The writer is retired Inspector-General of Police, CRPF)