May 27, 2007
Government Order Sounds Death Knell
for Mumbai 'Encounters' By Probir Pramanik
Mumbai
Stung by nationwide criticism over staged shootouts to check
terrorism and crime, the Maharashtra government has decided to rope
in the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to probe the
so-called 'encounter killings' in the state.
While Mumbai's sharpshooters, credited with checking the underworld
gang wars and random shootings in the city, are miffed with the new
move, human rights activists have welcomed it though with a few
reservations.
"The government has decided that any police encounter killings that
take place in the state from now on will be investigated by the
CID," states a Maharashtra Home Department circular issued to the
state director General of police and the Mumbai police commissioner.
The circular released Thursday assumes significance as over 800
staged encounters have been recorded in Mumbai alone in the last 10
years - many of them controversial in nature.
Confirming the receipt of the circular, Mumbai Police Commissioner
D.N. Jadhav told IANS: "This circular says that every police
encounter henceforth will be suo moto investigated by the state CID.
"All the concerned officers will soon be issued copies of the
circular soon."
But this order almost sounds the death knell to a small,
tightly-knit group of policemen, who were given much credit for
cleaning up crime in India's financial and entertainment capital.
In the early 1980s, Mumbai was virtually ruled by organised criminal
gangs. Extortions, random shootings and killings had turned the city
into India's crime capital too.
The fabled and, sometimes notorious, sharpshooters of Mumbai Police,
known in local parlance as 'encounter specialists', have killed
several wanted gangsters by staging shootouts.
Many of these special policemen have over 80 encounters to their
individual credit.
While they once enjoyed unlimited power, they soon fell out of
favour mostly because of their own doing, with allegations of links
with the underworld surfacing against them.
Many of these officers, responsible for bringing the gang war under
control, have been sidelined or are under suspension.
"With this order, we can safely assume that henceforth there will no
encounter in Mumbai," said an encounter specialist on conditions of
anonymity.
"Why should any police officer go for an encounter and then face the
agony of a probe after it? Definitely no one would want to be
involved with an encounter henceforth," said the officer, who was
once part of the special police team that broke the back of Mumbai's
notorious crime syndicates.
Though human rights groups have welcomed the move, they are not too
convinced about its implementation. "One needs to wait and watch if
the move is implemented in the true spirit," said P.A. Sabastian,
president of the Committee for the Protection of Democratic Rights.
"Over 800 suspected criminals are alleged to have been shot in cold
blood in so-called 'encounters' with the police," he pointed out.
"Whenever an encounter takes place, it should be investigated by a
judicial authority and not by a police unit like the CID," he said.
"It doesn't solve the problem unless the police officer or the team
of officers involved in an encounter killing are charged with
culpable homicide," said Sabastian, who is also a senior criminal
lawyer.
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