Huge numbers of encounters in UP in recent months are a serious cause for concern. Reportedly the action to purge criminals from the state is full of flaws and in most cases members of the minority community, Dalits and OBC are facing the brunt. NHRC has issued several notices only to fall on deaf ears. Before examining the current situation, a brief overview of the encounters in India.
The Rule of Law
After Independence, India has been gradually losing grip over the sacredly maintained principles of the “governance as per law”. Vinoba Bhave (1885-1982), a disciple of Gandhi Ji and truly a liberal democrat, hailed the Emergency as “Anushasan Parva/ the festival of discipline”. But regrettably the 21 months long Emergency rule (25 June 1975-21 March 1977) left behind, among other scars, glaring dents in the edifice of “the rule according to the law books.” Gradually bypassing the rule-book became a pattern rather than an exception.
“Encounter”, rarely heard in early years after Independence, became a phenomenon since the 1980s. “Encounter killing” emerged as a term for killing an alleged gangster or a suspected terrorist by the police, etc. In the 1990s and the mid-2000s, the Mumbai Police used this tactic to get rid of the notorious underworld. Many police officers came to be known as ‘encounter specialists’. To name a few, Pradeep Sharma, the Inspector who killed 104 criminals. SI Daya Nayak killed 83 and Inspector Praful Bhosale killed 77. Sharma once justified such killings saying, “Criminals are the filth and I’m the cleaner.”
It is suspected that in the process many suspected criminals were done to death under police custody and the story of the encounter was tailored. We call them “fake encounters” or “extra-judicial-killings”, as they go without any accountability. Incidentally, the State of Gujarat is infamous for many “fake encounters”. Between 2002 and 2006, 22 persons were killed in ‘fake-encounter’, including Sohrabuddin, his wife Kausar Bi and Ishrat Jahan. The stories have similar pattern. The killed persons were alleged to have entered Gujarat with the intention to kill the then CM Mr. Narendra Modi. However, in numbers, Kashmir and Punjab are far ahead of other states.
In Kashmir, general population is being crushed between militancy and security apparatus. Hundreds of men, women and children have been abused, raped and killed. Over two thousand people disappeared allegedly under police or security persons’ custody. A number of fake encounters were enacted and these encounters yielded rewards and promotions to ‘encounter specialists’.
Punjab too was cursed with “encounter killing” as a bitter and biting pill to deal with the insurgency between 1984 and 1995. Hundreds of youth were mercilessly killed and the police used to report ‘encounter’ on daily basis. The proof of militancy against the killed persons was mere police statements without convincing evidence. Among the chilling cases of fake encounter is an infamous case of 1991 from Pilibhit, in U.P. Police personnel dragged 11 Sikh pilgrims from a bus and shot to death in three groups. The police claimed they were terrorists.
In saffron UP
After splashing of the saffron over U.P. the dreaded demon of the ‘encounter’ has raised its head once again on the pretext of clearing the vampire of crime and crushing criminals in the state. On January 10, the Police stated that over 900 encounters have occurred since Yogi Adityanath came to power on March 19, 2017. Police said, 31 goons have been gunned down, 196 sustained injuries, at least four policemen killed in the process and several injured. According to another report, the police had conducted 1,038 encounters, 32 suspected criminals were killed and 238 injured (www.counterview.net). The number of those killed has risen to 40 till March 4.
The figures released by DGP Headquarters show an average three encounters occurred daily. The police drive continues with full support of the C.M. In June, in an interview telecast on India TV, Yogi Adityanath declared, in clear violation of the rule book and disrespect to legal and human rights of an accused, “Agar apradh karenge toh thok diye jayenge (If they commit crimes, they will be killed).” This means the accused will be punished by death without any trial in the court and without giving him a chance of hearing.
The NHRC took cognizance of the CM’s statement and the spurt in encounters in the state. The commission observed that even if the law and order situation was grave, the state cannot resort to such mechanism, which may result in the extra-judicial killings of the alleged criminals. According to the media reports, in ten months, the Adityanath government has received nine notices from the NHRC on various issues, including fake encounters. Citing a statement by Adityanath that “criminals will be jailed or killed in encounters”, the NHRC issued a notice to the chief secretary, “calling for a detailed report in the matter”. “The reported statement of the chief minister is tantamount to giving police and other state governed forces a free hand to deal with the criminals at their will and, possibly, it may result in abuse of power by the public servants. It is not good for a civilized society to develop an atmosphere of fear, emerging out of certain policies adopted by the State, which may result in violation of their right to life and equality before the law,” the commission observed in the notice issued on November 22, 2017.
ADG, Law and Order, Anand Kumar said, “Magisterial inquiry takes place after every encounter and reports are sent to the NHRC and the senior government officials. Directives are issued to field officers to hunt down wanted criminals on a regular basis and ambushes take place if criminals refuse to surrender.”
Yogi Adityanath says, “We will counter bullets with bullets. We have promised a fear-free society. There is some truth in the claim that ‘swacch badmash abhiyan’ (action to cleanse criminals), has a deterrent effect on criminals’ activity, but it is indicated that whole operation is full of flaws and irregularities. A report penned by Neha Dixit published in the news portal “The Wire” claims that spot inquiry in the state’s “most successful” four districts reveals that, of the 13 cases it examined, “none of those killed ever appeared on the ‘most wanted list’ put out by the IG crime office of the UP police.” Dixit noted a significant proportion of those killed in these encounters are from four districts of Western UP (where Jats are in majority), namely Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur, and Baghpat.
Neha Dixit, in her article based on her field-based investigation for the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), claimed that she met with the families of 14 of those killed and interviewed with “a range of police and official sources familiar with the encounters”. “The facts that emerged confirm the darkest suspicions around these killings”, the report says, “Out of the 14 cases, 11 had the same pattern. The victims were in the age group of 17 to 40. They were all under-trials in a number of cases. Just before each encounter, the police reportedly received a tip off about their location. They are either on a bike or a car.”
“As soon as the police tried to stop them on the road, they start firing. In retaliatory fire, the accused receive bullet injuries and are declared dead on arrival at the hospital. The police have recovered a 32 bore pistol and live cartridges in most cases,” the report says, underlining, “Thirteen out of the 14 families contend that the police announced that the dead were ‘wanted’ and had a financial reward on them only after the encounter.”
Muslims and OBC targeted
The report quotes SR Darapuri, a former top cop of UP and now a human rights activist, as saying that the strategy is to “specifically” immobilise the Muslim community “by killing young Muslim boys”, even as implicating Dalits and OBCs in “criminal cases.” He wonders, “Why the police are not equally active in checking crimes against Muslims, Dalits, and OBCs?”
This revelation is a clue to understanding why electronic and print media is mostly silent on a large number of encounters. The trend wants the answer to the question, “Will Yogi become a Modi for UP without taking shelter of a fire incident?”
Failure of Judicial System
We must acknowledge that controlling crime is a huge problem. Hardened criminals have strong bonds in political and administrative circles. They may be partners also in the loot. In most cases prosecution falls apart for the lack of evidence. People are frightened to depose against them. The menace is sadly a failure of the criminal justice system. Delay in procedure makes the case week. In many cases, the Government herself protects the offenders as allegedly done in Gujarat after 2002 carnage.
[The Contributor is a freelance journalist and a social activist based in New Delhi – [email protected]]