Video footage seems to implicate UP police in a fake encounter and extra-judicial killing of a petty criminal. Other similar cases and pleas from these cases suggest that fake encounters by UP police, with involvement of senior officers, may be more prevalent. Article by Shahira Naim from Lucknow.

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Promptly responding to a news channel's broadcast of live footage of a gruesome fake encounter in the posh Civil Lines area of Allahabad last year, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati ordered a CB-CID probe to bring the guilty policemen to book.

Director General of Police Vikram Singh confirmed that the Chief Minister had ordered a CB-CID probe and has directed the investigating agency to submit its report within 30 days. The original footage being broadcast has also been sought to become part of the investigation. 
 
The DGP who viewed the tapes admitted that prima facie it looked like a fake encounter. ''The government has taken the issue very seriously and the guilty policemen would not be spared," underlined Singh.

A sever indictment of the state's police had come from the National Human Rights Commission as recently as on 26 July 2007 while investigating yet another fake encounter carried out by the police in Sultanpur on 12 February this year.

Calling for a CBI enquiry the NHRC had asked the UP police not take law in its own hands. The NHRC had recommended an investigation from the central agency as it had noted that local police would not be independent as senior officers of the rank of SSP and DSP were involved.

The video tape of the Allahabad encounter being shown by a national channels clearly depicts how a petty criminal Pintu Mishra was chased by a posse of policemen for about two kilometers and shot dead at Civil Lines on 17 September 2006 despite a wounded Mishra raising his hands as a gesture to surrender.

The sequence of events as narrated by the police at that point of time had said that during a routine checking of vehicles registration numbers and license two men riding an unnumbered Hero Honda Glamour motorcycle had been spotted near the Central Bank at the main Civil Lines crossing.

The official version handed out by the police at that point was that when they tried to stop them the pillion rider hurled a crude bomb at the police picket severing head constable Ashok Pandey's torso. Constable Jai Prakash escaped with minor injuries. The pillion rider also fell down with the impact and shrapnel injuries.

Taking advantage of the people running helter skelter the other culprit now being identified as Jiten Mishra, dumped the motorcycle and tried to escape on foot.

The remaining members of the police team had given him a chase and shot him down some two kilometers away. The police version then had claimed that he had been shot down, as he had hurled another bomb injuring constable Ashok Sharma.

However, in the video footage it plainly shows that the man was unarmed and requesting the chasing policemen to allow him to surrender.

Speaking to a news channel the then SP City R.P.S. Yadav had claimed that the two motor-cycle born criminals had come to kill a major criminal Sujit Singh Birwa of Varanasi who was lodged in Allahabad jail and was to appear in court that day. "It is likely that the two motorcycle-born men were member of his rival Babloo Mishra's gang who had come to eliminate him", Yadav had said. .

Another case of police encounter was reported from Bulandshahr this morning where a criminal was shot dead by the police at Meerut highway, about 12 km from Bulandshahr.

According to the SSP Sujeet Pandey four criminals, who were aboard a looted truck coming from Muzaffarnagar were intercepted in Gulabathi area. While, one of them was shot dead in the police firing, other three managed to escape.

Meanwhile, on 26 July NHRC had observed "the job of the police is to apprehend criminals and bring them to book. If the police transgresses its limits and takes the law in its own hands, the security of the citizen is seriously jeopardized. Merely because a person is perceived to be a dreaded criminal and threat to society, the Police can have no justification to deprive him of his life otherwise than in accordance with the procedure established by law". 
 
The Commissions' observation came while dealing with the case of yet another fake encounter in Uttar Pradesh. The Commission has also asked the State authorities to get the case investigated by CBI.

The incident of fake encounter involved Suraj Singh, who was picked up by a team of SOG, Sultanpur, on February 12, 2007. Suraj brother Chandan sent a fax message to the NHRC the same evening expressing apprehension that the police may kill his brother in a fake encounter. 
 
Subsequently on 13 and 14 February NHRC received two separate messages - one from SSP, Lucknow and the other from STF, UP giving the information that Suraj Singh had been killed in an encounter with the police at Lucknow- Rai Bareilly Road, on 13 February. Both the messages claimed that Suraj Singh had been involved in a train robbery in which two constables were killed. 
 
As the NHRC had received the message from the deceased's brother before the alleged time of encounter the circumstances raised serious doubts about the authenticity of the police version.

A team of officials of the Investigation Division headed by DIG (NHRC) conducted an on-the-spot investigation at Lucknow, Sultanpur and Faizabad from 26 February to 2 March that has come out with a number of conclusions and recommendations.