While Mumbai police find themselvesembroiled in yet another allegation ofa fake encounter killing, a Right toInformation (RTI) response revealssome interesting facts aboutencounters that have taken placeover the past six years.
There have been 48 encounterkillings from January 1, 2004, toAugust 31, 2009, which works out toaround eight encounter deaths a year.Furthermore, in as many as 30 ofthese killings, those who weregunned down by the police were shotdirectly in the head and chest or justthe chest. The RTI reply comes fromthe police department itself and saysthat in only one of the 30 killings wasthe suspect shot in the legs.
"The data clearly shows that thepolice are mainly aiming to kill ratherthan capture the suspect,'' said Khar-based activist Yogacharya Anandji,who filed the RTI query. Encounterkillings are believed to have beeninitiated in the mid-1990s as a way ofeliminating underworld gangsters inMumbai. However, the police werelater accused of staging several fakeencounters. Recently, dismissedencounter specialist Pradeep Sharma was arrested in connection with theNovember 11, 2006, killing ofRamnarayan Gupta.
The latest RTI response came afterAnandji asked for details of how manypeople were shot in the arms, legs,shoulders, head and chest inencounters over the past few years.Former top cops and judges said thatthe police are vested with powers tofire at a criminal only if he is trying tooverpower them or flee the scene ofa crime.
"The intention should not be to shootto kill. The police manual clearly saysthat the cops should open fire belowthe belt if an accused is fleeing. Thepowers should not be misused,'' saidY P Singh, former IPS officer and nowa lawyer.
According to Singh, many of theencounter killings needed to be re-examined and added that the fact thata majority of the alleged criminalswere shot in the chest and head couldmean that the shooter was at closerange. "It is shocking that only oneperson was shot in the leg. Also, thefact that none of the police officersdied in these encounters or gotseriously injured puts a question mark on the incidents,'' Singh said. He saidballistic reports of the encounterswould reveal from what range theshots were taken.
The former cop maintained that seniorpolice officers of every zone knewabout the encounters in theirjurisdiction. "The courts need to betold of every killing, and anindependent inquiry needs to beconducted into every case,'' he said.Former additional chief metropolitanmagistrate Holambe Patil said, "Thepolice have been vested with powersto use weapons in self-defence, butfiring at a defenceless person can betreated as homicide under the law.''Some lawyers also question thepowers given to the police to killalleged criminals in encounters. "Allthese encounters should be subjectto judicial scrutiny. It is shocking thatthe police do not even file an FIR butjust file an inquest proceeding, whichis a formality when an unnatural deathoccurs in the city,'' said activist-lawyerYug Choudhary, who fought custodialdeath cases in the Bombay high courtrecently.
Courtesy TOI, 12 January 2010.
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