Civil society and fake encounters

Brij Bhardwaj

There can be no two opinions that there is no place for ‘fake encounters’ in any civil society. These should not happen even when the subject of these encounters is a wanted and dreaded criminal. The hallmark of any civil society is that criminals do not face kangaroo courts or the justice of the ‘fake encounter’ type. The fate of the ‘encounter’ specialists once again proves that an evil tool finally influences its wielder. Equally, instead of making political capital out of these there is need to mobilize opinion against it irrespective of the State or the men involved.

India may have been a free country for more than half a century but law and order machinery which includes police force or other men in uniform continue to behave as if they are agents of oppression instead of being servants of people.   This attitude comes up in a crude manner when the force gets the backing of political masters who try to use the force to serve their personal agenda or their ideology.   The case making headlines these days is a typical example of such collusion between the police force and political masters.

At this stage it makes no difference if the person so killed was a bad character or one with a criminal record.   What is important is that he and his wife were killed in cold blood by custodians of law and order who were given a uniform and gun to protect people and not to kill them.   If the person caught by them had committed any criminal act he should have been duly charged and convicted instead of being made a victim of some misguided and twisted minds who were brain washed to the extent that they thought that their cruel barbaric act was a proof of their love for the country.

The killings in Gujarat are not the first of its kind or unique in the sense that police force in other States has been guilty of it in the past.  But it is probably different in the sense because they were a part of the communal frenzy created in Gujarat by political leaders who used this lethal weapon to serve their narrow and selfish ends.   The ruling party in Gujarat that is BJP has often claimed that they were not communal but opposed to pseudo secularism, but one hopes that elimination of people belonging to other community is not a part of their creed irrespective of the credentials or record of such people.

Besides Gujarat, fake encounters in large numbers have also been reported from States like Jammu and Kashmir, North East and Punjab during the period the State was fighting anti-national elements.   In West Bengal the fight against Naxalites may not have given sanction to large scale killings in the name of fake encounters, but the police atrocities as well as barbaric torture were quite common.

The unfortunate part is that Indian people by and large have condoned such acts on the plea that criminals involved in acts like murders, dacoity or anti-national acts deserve no sympathy and their elimination could be justified.   The unfortunate part is that in case one such act is allowed or pardoned it makes it easy for men in force to commit many more without bothering to justify their unnecessary zeal in eliminating criminals which in many cases include innocent persons because of wrong identification or mistakes made by police.

It is on account of this attitude that our police force in practically every state have a section in police which acquires or is given the title of being encounter specialists.   Irrespective of the polish or justification given for such groups in simple terms they are only involved or kept for the purpose of eliminating all those who have become irritant for local administration or State.   Such groups over a period of time acquire their own agenda and commit excesses and in many cases become outright extortionists. It is no surprise that most of them have assets far in excess of their known sources of income.   The Gujarat story as it is unfolding is no different from similar exposures in the past.  One only hopes that the Supreme Court which is setting the pace and terms of investigation will take the same to its logical conclusion.   It is not important if the investigation is done by a State agency or a Central agency, but the credibility of it will depend on the extent of supervision that is exercised by the court.

The current controversy is a setback for BJP which was projecting Mr. Narendra Modi of Gujarat as a model chief Minister one who as not only efficient, forward looking and incorruptible.   The recent disclosures will certainly dent his image, though I would like to add that Gujarat does not stand alone in using its strong arm to eliminate people suspected of crimes, but it does not reduce the gravity of charge.

India may be a democracy as people here exercise the right to vote and elect their Government, but it is yet to become a civil society where human rights are respected.   We have on our statue books Acts like Enemy Act, Armed Forces Special Powers Act and many others which are grossly misused.  Our law makers need to do some introspection if they or the Governments they run can be trusted with such draconian powers.

The list of guilty people in such cases is a long one.  One only hopes that the judiciary, media and others who believe that everyone is innocent unless proved guilty by due process of law should have his rights duly protected.   One hopes that vigil exercised by different sections of society will certainly prevent people from staging such crimes and enactment of fake encounters will become a matter of past in days to come.

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