Encounter killings violate rule of law, says plea in SC
NEW DELHI: Killing of accused by police under the garb of encounter is a serious violation of the rule of law and amounts to “Talibanisation of the country”, a plea filed before the Supreme Court said on Friday, while seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the encounter killings of Uttar Pradesh gangster Vikas Dubey’s aides.
The plea was filed by Mumbaibased advocate Ghanshyam Upadhyay hours before Dubey himself was killed after he allegedly tried to escape from police custody on Friday morning.
“...there is every possibility that even accused Vikas Dubey shall be killed by Uttar Pradesh Police...once his custody is obtained...,” the petition stated.
Besides seeking a CBI probe into the killings of the co-accused, Upadhyay also prayed that adequate security should be provided for Dubey so that he can be dealt with as per law.
“A new tendency is now gaining ground ...of arresting the accused alleged to be involved in heinous crimes and then killing the accused under the guise of encounter and then becoming movie cop ‘Singham’. (It) needs to be nipped in the bud at the earliest to save the country from becoming Taliban,” the plea said.
In the mid-1980s, two independent candidates, Hari Shakar Tiwari and Virendra Pratap Shahi, walked into the Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha straight from jail. They had comfortably won their seats with the tacit support of the Congress.
Tiwari was lodged in Agra jail and Shahi in Fatehgarh, hundreds of km away from their electoral arena in Maharajganj of east UP,. While Shahi was gunned down later in the 1990s, Tiwari continued his winning spree, becoming a minister in various governments.
The trendsetters belonged to the two castes – Brahmins and Thakurs -- that had dominated the electoral politics of the state till Mayawati, Kalyan Singh and Mulayam Singh Yadav emerged in the 1990s.
But two constants remained. One, candidates with criminal antecedents continued to win elections . Some criminals fought as independent candidates, others as official nominees of the political parties.
Two, all the criminals were self-styled Robin Hoods with similar career trajectories: a small begining by bullying or befriending cops at the local level and helping people out by funding weddings; building their empire with support from local politicians; living in huge safe bungalows with luxurious vehicles and protected by an army of supporters; and creating an aura of terror. Money came from lucrative contract business -basically, they got a cut off everything.
Over the decades, politicians and governments turned a blind eye to the growing influence of such gangsters -- instead tapping them for this very influence during elections . And people knocked on their doors as governments failed to redress their grievances.
Nogovernmentorleadercould ignore them -- or their power and influence.
.Former BJP chief minister Kalyan Singh, a tough administrator, included Raguraj Pratap Singh in his government in 1998. Raghuraj Singh was on the run till his swearing in Raj Bhawan.
The Samajwadi Party’s Mulayam Singh Yadav formed a government in 2003 and included Singh in it.
The recommendations of the Election Commission were thrown to the wind in the distribution of tickets. Winnability became the prime factor in selection of candidates.
In 2017 as many as 143 out of 403 members of the Vidhan Sabha had criminal cases against them.
Interestingly, some do fall out of the favour.
Mukhtar Ansari , a five time MLA and former MP Atiq Ahmad, are facing the heat under the present dispensation with CM Yogi Adityanath out to demolish their empires .