The State of Encounter Killings in India First Published November 2018
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The State of Encounter Killings in India First published November 2018 © Asian Centre for Human Rights, 2018. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior permission of the publisher. ISBN: 978-81-88987-85-6 Suggested contribution Rs. 995/- Published by : ASIAN CENTRE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS [ACHR has Special Consultative Status with the United Nations ECOSOC] C-3/441-C, Janakpuri, New Delhi-110058, India Phone/Fax: +91-11-25620583 Email: [email protected] Website: www.achrweb.org Table of Contents 1. Executive summary ........................................................................................................... 7 2. The history and scale of encounter deaths in India ............................................................ 19 2.1 History of encounter killings in India ...................................................................... 20 2.2 Encounter killings in insurgency affected areas ..................................................... 20 2.3 Encounter killings by the police during 1998 to 2018 ............................................ 24 3. Modus operandi : Target, detain, torture and execute without any witness ....................... 27 3.1 Target and detain.................................................................................................. 27 3.2 Rare eye-witnesses .............................................................................................. 32 3.3 Torture of suspects before encounter killing ......................................................... 34 Emblemactic Case of Target, Detain, Torture and Execute: Fake encounter of five AASU leaders in 1994 and life sentence to three officers & four soldiers of the Indian Army ................................................. 37 3.4 Law enforcement personnel: Executioners, witnesses and complainants of fake encounters................................................................................................ 40 4. The license to kill ......................................................................................................... 43 4.1 Social acceptance of extrajudicial executions......................................................... 44 4.2 Legal impunity through prior sanction and good faith .............................................. 44 i. Procedural impunity: Registration of FIR to access to autopsy report ........ 44 ii. Refusal to conduct proper and impartial investigation................................. 45 iii. Impunity through the requirement of prior sanction where proper and impartial investigation are held .................................................................. 48 4.3 Out of turn promotions and medals for encounter killings ...................................... 56 4.4 Deployment for lucrative UN Peace Keeping Operations ........................................ 59 5. Guidelines and laws to deal with encounter deaths ............................................................ 63 5.1 NHRC Guidelines on Encounter Deaths .................................................................. 63 5.2. Andhra Pradesh High Court judgment on mandatory registration of FIR against the police in encounter deaths ............................................................. 66 5.3. Law established by the Supreme Court for dealing with encounter deaths.............. 72 6. Supreme reluctance by the Supreme Court to address encounter killings ........................... 81 7. Fake encounters are counter-productive ............................................................................ 83 7.1 Uttar Pradesh: Crimes are increasing despite highest encounter killings ................ 83 7.2 Politically counter-productive: Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter haunts BJP President Amit Shah ...................................................................................... 86 7.3 Promotes public uprising: Machil fake encounter that gave birth to stone pelting in Jammu and Kashmir ..................................................................... 87 7.4 Rape and encounter killing of Thangjam Manorama Devi that shaped the movement against the APFSPA....................................................................... 88 8. The status of implementation of Supreme Court judgment of 2014: The case of Uttar Pradesh ............................................................................................... 91 9. 42 emblematic fake encounter cases adjudicated by the NHRC ....................................... 105 10. Annexure 1: Guidelines of the National Human Rights Commission for Dealing with Encounter Cases ......................................................................................... 197 10.1 Procedures to be followed in cases of deaths in police encounters, 29.3.1997.... 197 10.2 Revised Guidelines/Procedures to be followed in dealing with deaths occurring in encounter deaths, 2.12.2003 .......................................................... 200 10.3 Revised Guidelines/Procedures to be followed in cases of deaths caused in police action, 12.5.2010...................................................................... 203 11. Annexure 2: Key judgments of the High Courts and Supreme Courts ............................... 207 11.1 Supreme Court judgment in People’s Union for Civil Liberties Vs. Union of India, 5.2.1997 ..................................................................................... 207 11.2 Andhra Pradesh High Court judgment in A.P. Civil Liberties Committee Vs. Government of A.P., 6.2.2009 ........................................................................... 216 11.3 Supreme Court judgment in Prakash Kadam & Etc. vs Ramprasad Vishwanath Gupta & Anr, 13.5.2011 ............................................... 330 11.4 Supreme Court judgment in People’s Union for Civil Liberties Vs State of Maharashtra, 23.9.2014 ...................................................................... 340 11.5 Supreme Court Judgment in Extra Judicial Execution Victim Families Association versus Union of India, 14.7.2017..................................................... 366 12. Annexure 3: UN Principles on the Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions................................................................................. 383 GLOSSARY AASU All Assam Students Union ACP Assistant Commissioner of Police AFSPA Armed Forces (Special Powers) Acts APCLC Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee APIC Andhra Pradesh Information Commission AR Assam Rifles ASI Assistant Sub Inspector ASP Additional Superintendent of Police ATS Anti Terror Squad BSF Border Security Force CBCID Crime-Branch Crime Investigation Department CBI Central Bureau of Investigation CFSL Central Forensic Science Laboratory CID Criminal Investigation Department CJM Chief Judicial Magistrate CMP Country Made Pistol CO Circle Officer Cr.P.C. Criminal Procedure Code CRPF Central Reserve Police Force DG Director General DGP Director General of Police DSP Deputy Superintendent of Police FIR First Information Report FSL Forensic Science Laboratory GCM General Court Martial GOC General Officer Commanding IO Investigation Officer IPC Indian Penal Code IPS Indian Police Service The State of Encounter Killings in India J&K Jammu & Kashmir JCOs Junior Commissioned Officers JIC Judicial Inquiry Commission LWE Left Wing Extremist MER Magisterial Enquiry Report MHA Ministry of Home Affairs MULTA Muslim United Liberation Tigers Association NCOs Non-Commissioned Officers NDFB National Democratic Front of Bodoland NGOs Non-Governmental Organisations NHRC National Human Rights Commission NJDG National Judicial Data Grid NSCN National Socialist Council of Nagaland PBOR Persons Below Officer Rank PHRA Protection of Human Rights Act PIL Public Interest Litigation PUCL People’s Union for Civil Liberties PWG Peoples War Group RPC Ranbir Penal Code RR Rashtriya Rifles SHO Station House Officer SHRC State Human Rights Commission SI Sub-Inspector SIT Special Investigation Team SLPs Special Leave Petitions SOG Special Operations Group SPP Special Public Prosecutor SSP Senior Superintendent of Police STF Special Task Force UDHR Universal Declaration of Human Rights ULFA United Liberation Front of Asom (6) The State of Encounter Killings in India 1. Executive summary “I felt betrayed by then PM Chandra Sekhar after 21 Khalistani militants I arranged to surrender were killed. Never spoke to him after that.” - Current Chief Minister of Punjab, Captain Amrinder Singh wrote in a tweet on 17 May 2017 on fake encounter killings during the insurgency in Punjab from 1985 to 1995.1 A classic case of “Target, Detain, Torture and Execute” policy On 9 October 2018, the Summary General Court Martial of the Indian Army held at the 2nd Infantry Mountain Division at Dinjan in Dibrugarh district of Assam sentenced seven convicted army personnel viz Major General A K Lal, Colonels Thomas Mathew and R S Sibiren, and junior commissioned officers (JCOs) and non-commissioned officers (NCOs) Dilip Singh, Jagdeo Singh, Albindar Singh and Shivendar Singh to life imprisonment for torture and extra-judicial killing of five leaders of the All Assam Students Union (AASU) in a fake encounter on 22 February 1994.2 Following the killing of Rameshwar Singh, general manager of the Assam Frontier Tea Limited at the Talap Tea Estate by the cadres of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), troops of the 18th Punjab Regiment based at Dhola in Tinsukia,