Encounter killings: Role of police under scanner in several cases

In some of the other encounters, police officials have been found on the wrong side of the law either by a commission or a court

The alleged encounter killing of four suspects in the gang-rape and murder case of a veterinarian in Hyderabad in 2019 is not the only incident where fingers have been pointed out at the police, with there being several other such instances including the 2009 Dehradun encounter case that left an MBA student dead and the 1997 Connaught Place shootout in which two people were killed.

Recently, a three-member inquiry commission headed by a retired Supreme Court judge on the Hyderabad encounter submitted that the firing by the police personnel was allegedly deliberate and that three of the deceased were minor at the time of death.

Some of the other encounters where police officials have been found on the wrong side of the law either by a commission or a court, including that of Sadiq Jamal, who was shot dead by Gujarat Police.

In 2003, the Gujarat Police shot dead Jamal, claiming to have information that he was planning an attack on the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi and other top BJP leaders. According to an investigation by the CBI, not only was Jamal shot dead by the police in an alleged fake encounter, but also that the Intelligence Bureau played a role in it. Many police inspectors and top IB officials were questioned and later accused in the case of his 'encounter'.

Also read: SC appointed panel submits report on the encounter of four accused in Hyderabad veterinarian's rape-murder

In 2006, Tulsiram Prajapati, known to be an associate of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, was killed in an alleged fake encounter. According to the CBI, Prajapati was with Sheikh and Kausar Bi when the Gujarat Police caught them. Prajapati was shown to be arrested in Rajasthan and later killed.

Similarly, Sohrabuddin Sheikh, who the Gujarat Police claimed was also a terrorist, was killed in an alleged fake encounter by the Gujarat and Rajasthan police in 2005. His wife Kausar Bi disappeared, and was alleged to have been eliminated by police.

In December 2018, a special court in Mumbai had acquitted all the 22 accused, including 21 policemen in the case.

In the case of Ishrat Jahan, who was killed along with Javed Shaikh, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar by Gujarat Police in an encounter near Ahmedabad in June 15, 2004, the police had claimed that the four were terrorists who were planning to assassinate then Gujarat Chief Minister Modi.

A high court-appointed Special Investigation Team concluded that the encounter of Ishrat Jahan was "fake".However, a special court in Ahmedabad discharged three police officials in the case in March 2021.

Ram Narayan Gupta alias 'Lakhan Bhaiya', who was allegedly an aide to gangster Chhota Rajan, was shot dead in 2006 by the Mumbai Police when he was picked up from Vashi and killed in a purportedly staged encounter in Versova.

Following the encounter, a Mumbai sessions court had sentenced 21 people, including 13 policemen, to life imprisonment in 2013 for killing Gupta while holding them guilty of conspiring and kidnapping him. However, one of the accused, encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma, was acquitted.

Another case which grabbed headlines was that of MBA student Ranbir Singh.

In this encounter case, the Delhi High Court in February 2018 had upheld a trial court's order convicting and awarding life terms to seven policemen for killing the 22-year-old in a staged shootout in Dehradun in 2009, while describing the matter as “a tragic case.

The policemen were held guilty for their involvement in the conspiracy to kidnap and kill Ghaziabad resident Singh, who had gone to Dehradun to take up a job in on July 3, 2009.

On March 31, 1997, ten policemen who were part of a Crime Branch squad had opened fire on a blue sedan at the Barakhamba intersection in Connaught Place here, resulting in killing of two of the three occupants -- Jagjit Singh and Pradeep Goyal. The target of the operation was a gangster named Mohammed Yasneen, who was also meant to be in a blue sedan.

The ten policemen were convicted and sentenced to life term and were released from jail in October 2020 on the recommendation of the sentence review board.

In the Hyderabad encounter, the Commission in its 387-page report has opined that there are a lot of discrepancies in the police version with regards to two of the deceased throwing mud and soil at police, stanching weapons from police and firing indiscriminately.

The four suspects -- Mohammed Arif, Chintakunta Chennakeshavulu, Jolu Shiva and Jollu Naveen -- were arrested in connection with the gang-rape and murder of veterinary woman doctor on November 29, 2019.

They were killed in an alleged encounter by police on December 6, 2019 at Chattanpally -- the same highway -- where the charred body of the 25-year old veterinarian was found.

The police had accused that on November 27, 2019, the woman was kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and later found murdered. They had said that the accused had subsequently burned the body of the woman.