PIL to be filed against UP fake encounters

A ‘public tribunal’ in the national capital resolved to file a PIL in the Supreme Court against fake encounter killings in Uttar Pradesh. It also demanded that a court-monitored Special Investigating Team (SIT) be constituted to inquire into the deaths.

Relatives of several victims were present at the tribunal held in the Constitution Club and claimed that several people killed for being dreaded criminals were actually innocent and had no cases against them. The state government, they alleged, had turned a deaf ear to their complaints and had taken no action against policemen involved.

Independent journalist Neha Dixit, who last month released her investigation into 14 such fake encounters in Western UP, told National Herald, “the reaction to my report published by The Wire has been predictable; families are being threatened, their neighbours are being threatened and some police officers even threatened me of dire consequences for reporting one side of a the story.”

“What has not happened is that no one has filed a petition in this regard in any court. Someone needs to come forward and at least file a petition for an investigation in the case,” she added.

Her investigation revealed that that while police are killing some people in cold blood, many more are being shot in their legs before being put behind bars without any medical aid, left to die there. Fake cases, she found, are being registered to justify the ‘encounters’.

Indira Jaising, noted lawyer and a member of the jury, said she was shocked to hear the versions of the people close to the victims. “I can say that at the moment there is no rule of law in this country anymore; people have actually lost their trust in the law, she said.”

According to UP government figures, by January 2018, the police had conducted 1,038 encounters. In these, 32 people and four policemen were killed and 238 injured.

Unofficial figures are far higher, where the total number of ‘encounters’ are estimated to be more than 1400. These ‘encounters’ entail, shooting at people, who may and may not be petty criminals or gangsters, without following due processes of law.

Retired IG of Police SR Darapuri, another member of the tribunal, said that after listening to the ‘stories’ he was convinced that fake encounters were being executed as a part of policy in Uttar Pradesh. “ This is not new—we have seen this in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, in fact in every state ruled by the BJP.”