Controversial encounters under the microscope

MEERUT/BAGHPAT: The police report was clear, concise and almost copybook. A Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire carrying four suspects was intercepted at a check point in Noida but the car accelerated and the gang fired a volley of shots, prompting the police to retaliate.

The car crashed after a brief chase and gangster Sumit Gurjar was found inside, bleeding with a bullet in the abdomen. The 21-year-old from Chirchita village in UP’S Baghpat district was taken to hospital where doctors pronounced him dead on arrival.

The gunfight, called an “encounter”, took place on October 3 last year. A sub-inspector was wounded and Gurjar’s three accomplices escaped.

The death of Gurjar, wanted for looting, added to a list of 50 criminals killed in the nine districts of UP police’s Meerut zone between March 20 2017 and May 2, 2018. The operations have triggered public criticism of alleged police atrocities and extra-judicial killings.

Gurjar’s family accused the police of murdering him in cold blood, alleging that he was picked up by a group of plainclothes cops from Baleni on September 30 and killed in a staged shootout. “We informed the CM’S office, senior officials and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) early on October 3. But despite our complaint lodged at the CM’S grievance portal Jansunwai, we later got the news that Sumit was killed in an encounter,” said Praveen Kumar, the slain suspect’s cousin.

Meerut zone additional director general of police Prashant Kumar underscored the point that police have evidence against Gurjar and a court had dismissed a request to lodge a case against the cops. “Family members will never accept that their ward could be involved in criminal activities,” he said. Several families have now approached the NHRC. It has directed the UP government to form a team to probe 17 cases of alleged fake encounters.