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Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

In Cold Blood

-Economic and Political Weekly

Strict implementation of NHRC guidelines for investigation into fake “encounters” is a must.

The killing of five suspected bank robbers in Chennai on 23 February by police officers tasked with apprehending them looks suspiciously like yet another case of a fake “encounter”. News reports following the killing have brought out various inconsistencies in the claim of the police that they fired in self-defence.
 
After directives from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), an enquiry into the incident has been initiated by the Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department of Tamil Nadu. A public interest litigation filed by a human rights organisation seeking to investigate more than 20 cases of “encounter deaths” in the past four years in the state is already pending in the Madras High Court. Though the police can claim the right to defend themselves, that they acted in self-defence must be ­subsequently clearly established and cannot be based on press statements of an unavoidable and risky firefight that are more often than not usually lapped up by an uncritical media.

In 2011, a Supreme Court bench hearing a case about an ­alleged fake encounter involving the Rajasthan police said that police ­officials involved in fake encounter deaths should be ­given the strictest of punishments – the death penalty. The bench consisting of judges Markandeya Katju and Gyan Sudha Mishra made this observation while noting that a fake encounter was no different from cold-blooded murder. While capital punish­ment has no place in jurisprudence and a civilised ­society, it is welcome that the Supreme Court mentioned the need for harsh punishment of policemen who are involved in killing suspected criminals.
 
Yet, some state governments have even given ­career promotions and gallantry awards to the policemen ­involved in ­encounter killings. There is the example from Gujarat where senior policemen who have been subsequently charged with murder in fake encounters such as the killing of Sohrabuddin were given promotions. According to NHRC data, 1,502 encounters had been reported to the body until 2009; 12 cases were proven as fake and compensation awarded to the families of victims. What is not clear is how many of the 1,502 cases were properly investigated.

The NHRC’s 1997 guidelines (revised in 2003) – intimation of all encounter deaths to the NHRC, mandatory magisterial and independent enquiries, prompt prosecution of and disciplinary action against those found guilty, no out of turn promotions and other such instructions – are not adhered to by many state governments. In fact, some have been lax in implementing even the most important of them – as evidenced in the absence of an ­independent enquiry by the Government of Andhra Pradesh into the encounter killing of Maoist leader Cherukuri Rajkumar “Azad” and journalist Hemchandra Pandey. The fact remains that extrajudicial killings and fake encounters enjoy political ­patronage as well, especially in cases involving dissidents and radicals. In February 2009, the Andhra Pradesh High Court in the APCLC vs Government of Andhra Pradesh case had ordered that independent investigations and the filing of an FIR had to be ensured in all encounter deaths. But the Andhra Pradesh police obtained a stay on the judgment from the Supreme Court. An appeal in 1999 by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) to the Supreme Court in the PUCL vs State of Maharashtra case for stricter follow-up after deaths is still being heard by the apex court. Police officials argue that stringent guidelines on preventing and following up on encounters will cramp them in performing their duty in a potentially dangerous situation! It is implicitly suggested that tortuous judicial proceedings do not result in ­justice and so the killings of “criminals” by policemen is justified. Media praise of police officials involved in encounters and impatient demands for “instant justice” are also to blame for the phenomena of encounter killings. The media has simply not helped with its use of terms such as “encounter specialists” for individual policemen who have a number of killings against their name; such irresponsible media practices glamourise rather than call to account such police actions.

While the NHRC guidelines mandating enquiries into encounter deaths and the Supreme Court calling for harsh punishment if they are proven to be set-up killings are welcome, more substantive reforms in policing need to be effected. A change in the form of policing – an end to the use of aggressive methods and the adoption of more humane forms of law enforcement – and better justice delivery systems should definitely help change public perceptions about the “efficacy” of encounter killings. This will then lead to a decline and eventually complete ­elimination of an illegal and inhuman practice.