14th dec 2008
" Cops give excuse that they had fired at youth in self defence ? Most of the encounters take place between 9 pm to 4 am "
The “encounter deaths” of the three youth who were behind the acid attacks on two female engineering students in Warangal is being seen as another example of the “instant justice” meted out by a desperate police.
This time too, cops gave the excuse that they had fired at the youth in selfdefence after the latter tried to attack them. The story, as usual, is full of loopholes.
Legal experts scoff at it and say that the latest encounter deaths are another instance of cops trying to cover up their failure to act on complaints quickly and investigate cases to their logical ends. The Warangal police, under immense political and public pressure, was in a hurry to close the case diary to save their skin. Like many other encounters, the gunning down of the acid attackers also took place in the dead of night at a secluded place.
The state has witnessed several instances in which police went for “encounters” after such controversies. Statistics shows that non-Naxal encounter killings have mostly taken place in Warangal, Hyderabad, and Cyberabad (erstwhile Ranga Reddy) police commissionerates, apart from Anantapur and Kurnool. However, the senior advocate of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, Mr C. Mallesh Rao, said it was not an encounter but murder by the state. “If public opinion is to punish it has to be done in accordance with law and not otherwise,” he said. “Of course, the acid attack was condemnable. But this is akin to mob justice where suspects are lynched. The state should strictly adhere to the law.” “Most of these so-called encounter killings take place in between 9 pm and 4 am and in secluded places,” said a police officer.
In Vijayawada in 2002, a murder accused K. Srinivas alias Budda Shantan was killed in an “encounter” at 2.30 am when the subinspector was reportedly interrogating him. According to the police, Santhan grabbed the sub-inspector’s revolver. In another case in Vijayawada, an SI and four policemen shot a rowdysheeter who was armed only with a knife in June 2002. In an encounter that took place in Warangal in October, two rowdy sheeters, Gaddam Jagan and A. Ratnakar, were shot dead while they allegedly tried to escape. Venu, a rowdysheeter, was killed in encounter at Neredmet in Cyberabad at night.
But the former directorgeneral of Police, Mr Pervaram Ramulu, said the police action could be seen as illegal but it could not be termed unethical.
“They are not ordinary criminals,” he said. “Vox populi is Vox dei (the voice of people is the voice of god). As people demanded, instant justice it is delivered.” A retired judge, who sought anonymity, said the duty of the police was to bring the accused to trial and prosecute them. “They have to charge-sheet the cases in time,” he said. “The charge-sheeting rate of the state is very low.” In fact, the charge-sheet rate of cases by police was only 65.34 per cent in 2007. In Hyderabad it is a low of 29.16 per cent. Several cases are pending in the courts and most of them end in acquittal. The conviction rate has also come down drastically, thanks to flawed investigations.
“This is a clear case where police acted under compulsion of public opinion,” said former IPS officer, Mr Ch Anjaneya Reddy. “The police department should able to resist this. It is not the fault of the police alone, but of the entire legal system.” “Warangal police has been involved in encounter killings for the past 35 years,” said the human rights activist, Mr G Haragopal. “First they killed Naxals and then dacoits. Now they are killing boys involved in criminal activity. This is short-circuiting judicial procedure.”
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