22

Mar

Being  encounter specialist  not a badge of honour.

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Today’s Edition

New Delhi, 22 March 2024

Amod K Kanth

Having spent nearly 30 years of my career with the Delhi Police and the CBI dealing with high--

profile cases during the violent 90s I am very disturbed by several facts that have emerged about

the so-called encounter specialist of Mumbai, Pradeep Sharma after he got a life term for fake

encounter of 2006.

In this case involving Lakhan Bhaiya of the Abu Salem gang 12 other policemen have been given

life term while six civilians have been acquitted by the High Court.

From what I learned from newspaper reports Sharma had been suspended from the police

twice, once in a corruption case and another time in a case investigated by the NIA where a vehicle

carrying explosives was found near the residence of Mukesh Ambani.

He even spent 4 years of his 25-year tenure in jail from 2013 to 2017 but every time he managed

to get back into service.

What's very disturbing for me is how this man always managed to be close to the higher police

officers including the Police Commissioner of the economic capital of the country known as

Mumbai.

There are various opinions about the number of his encounter victims which vary from 50 to 312

but they are a sad commentary on the policing and legal system of the country.

In this particular case too he had been earlier cleared by a lower court but finally the High Court

caught up with him and sent him to jail for life.

As I have repeatedly said in talks about my police diaries resulting in two books Khaki in Duststorm

and Khaki on Broken Wings, my experience with the toughest terrorists and gangsters shows that I

never had to use even third degree to crack the cases. This was when I was dealing with international

terrorists involved in the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi.

I understand that sometimes encounter killings of criminals in high-profile cases does give a heroic

stature to the police officer involved but the fact remains that 50 to 60 per cent of encounters are fake

encounters for short-term glory.

I also recognise the fact that in India only about 50 to 60 per cent of the police force is deployed for

maintaining law and order for the common man, the rest is for VIP security etc but this does not

mean that the remaining police officers go to the other extreme to gain popularity and promotions.

There are several ways in which the police can gain the confidence of the people. For instance, I

just learnt that the Police Commissioner system is working very well in Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh.

They have worked out a system where the eve-teasers or Romeos anywhere in the city are

identified within minutes and a police squad with sufficient strength arrives to pick up the

tormentors.

You need not be trigger-happy to gain the confidence of the people.

It is also true that most reports of police encounters come from Mumbai because there the fight is

between big Mafia gangs led by Dawood Ibrahim or Abu Salem and it is important to create fear of

the police and law among criminals.

But under no circumstances can I support the glorification of corrupt and trigger-happy police

officers because the biggest victim of such encounters is ultimately the police system itself.

The more such incidents occur the more the credibility of the police goes down.

I have heard many times that the police job is hampered by the interference of politicians.

Since I have mostly worked in the political capital Delhi during the toughest times I can assert that

politicians have always been there but the police have also been doing their job efficiently.

Sometimes even the judiciary at the highest level and senior advocates are involved in reversing

the course of justice like they tried in the Jessica Lal murder case. But despite advice from many

well-wishers and family members I decided to dig my heels and got the whole judgment of the

highest court reversed so that the culprits went to jail.

This proves that despite all the comings the police have sufficient powers to get justice to victims even in high-profile cases if they take the harder legal course instead of taking shortcuts. 

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(The author is former DGP Goa and Arunachal Pradesh and , Founder General Secretary of  Prayas, a well-known NGO)

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