Activists and cops welcome SC ruling on encounters, for different reasons

MUMBAI: Between 1995 and 1997, ‘encounter’ was a dreaded word in Mumbai’s underworld. It was never chance, certainly not friendly and usually staged, said survivors. Civil rights activists, who on Tuesday welcomed the Supreme Court’s guidelines in the matter, have always agreed. In 99 encounters within those two years, nearly 135 criminals were ‘eliminated’ by the city police.
Police officers say the SC order may allay fears that encounters are staged. A former cop said encounters were never fake, but agreed with the SC’s view that an independent probe must take place in the event of an encounter death. “The probe must be swift so that cops are not prevented from doing their duty,” he said.
A spate of encounters in August-September 1997 led to demands from activist groups People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights for an inquiry since no police officer ever came away hurt or bleeding from an exchange of fire—the mainstream meaning of an encounter. Even criminals have a right to life, which cannot be breached by an extra-constitutional act, the groups said, doubting the genuineness of action that overnight turned some cops into celebrity ‘encounter specialists’.
Back then, a case became prominent when Samajwadi Party leader Abu Asim Azmi protested the alleged encounter of gangster Javed Shaikh, alias Javed Fawda. He said that in reality police officer Vasant Dhoble had shot dead an innocent peanut vendor on Sprott Road in Ballard Estate, mistaking him for the gangster in August 1997.
The Bombay HC in 1997 appointed the then principal judge of the city civil and sessions court, A S Aguiar, as a one-member committee to verify three encounter deaths. Judge Aguiar’s report held that the encounters were staged. The finding was rejected by the HC in February 1999. The matter went to the top court, which on Tuesday issued guidelines, including that encounter killings require independent investigation.