Meeran Borwankar, Former DG and Police Commissioner
About the report
It is a very well researched and drafted report. Whenever I get such a report, the first thing I do is to see the research or survey methodology adopted. I found them to be very comprehensive in this report. It is commendable how the questionnaire was designed and students involved and trained for data collection. This whole exercise was undertaken during NovemberDecember 2020, in the middle of the pandemic. Hats off to the teams conducting the survey and producing this report.
On the topic, ‘Can Extrajudicial Killings be the State Policy?,’ I can say that I have only had experience about encounters and so-called extra-judicial fake encounters in the urban scenario of Mumbai and Maharashtra.
So, state, as we all know, is a political association with geographical area. It’s a sovereign and one of its main duties is order and security. During the course of maintaining order and security, can fake or extra-judicial encounters become a state policy? We are all aware that IPC itself gives us Sections to defend our property and body in a manner that may lead to action on our part. We can resort to violence to defend ourselves. But fake murders as a state policy are an emphatic no. And yet we have to face the reality of people celebrating and showering flowers on the alleged encounters of the Hyderabad accused. They were never tried but the society decided to conclude that they were the rapists. And then there was the encounter of gangster Vikas Dubey. Now the point is, was the state silent? Yes. Were the citizens silent? Not only were they silent, but they were celebrating. So, given an atmosphere where the state decides to look the other way and citizens rejoice, we have to conclude that it is a weak, rogue or desperate state. It is a desperate state when it came to Punjab, or maybe sometimes in
We have to face the reality of people celebrating and showering flowers on the alleged encounters of the Hyderabad accused.
the North East. But in the context of urban terrorism by organised crime in Mumbai, I saw a very weak state. Therefore, though it is not a policy, the state, by its very silence, is acknowledging and accepting encounters, some of which are not genuine encounters but extra-judicial killings by rogue police officers.
On unrepentant criminals
One of these encounters has become a topic of national debate. I would like to give two examples. One was when an officer, whom we lost in the 26/11 attack, Vijay Salaskar, informed me that he was following a notorious criminal. Hence, he and his teams wanted a few concessions from the daily duties which crime branch officers have to perform. Understanding the kind of operation the officer was leading, we permitted him. After about two weeks, he produced a criminal before me. During his interrogation of about two hours, the criminal described various killings where targets were fixed by the bosses of his gang. Hotels were booked for him and pilgrimages to Shirdi and Tirupati were organised after each operation. He stayed in luxury hotels and taxis would report to him before and after the operation. Cash was being handed over to him. Despite my training as an IPS officer, I just held my head in shame and thought: ‘why didn’t we encounter this guy?’ Because I knew he will be in prison for long. His family will be taken care of by his organised criminal gang. And in the end, he may get acquitted. Even though I believe in human rights, and hold that encounters are a big no, I felt otherwise in this particular case. I was extremely disturbed by the way he explained how the killings were being organised. Additionally, he had no repentance at all. So, I really wondered whether I’m doing my duty by putting him in the prison now, where he will be for years, in one trial after the other.
Another instance comes to mind. When I was heading the Maharashtra prisons in 2012, citizens would often meet me with questions. They would ask: “Oh, you are now in the prison department. So, Ajmal Kasab is living on the taxes we pay? What are you going to do with him? Have him there for years? Feed him? Feed him biryani?” It became such an embarrassment to accept that I was heading the prison department as people would look down upon me. They felt that a terrorist, who was seen opening fire in Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CST) railway station in 2008, was alive and kicking in the prison, a department I was heading. They probably thought that I was feeding him biryani for which the citizen was paying taxes. This incident also made me do a rethink about the system and empathise with the anguish that citizens felt in such cases.
On special courts and speedy trials
I would also emphasise that this is definitely a sign of a weak state. We need to overhaul the criminal justice system instead of thinking that the citizens are accepting of encounters as a way of controlling organised crime, insurgency or Left-Wing extremism. I would recommend that we strive to improve policing and investigation with the help of acts like the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crimes Act 1999 (MCOCA). MCOCA-like Acts are
We need to overhaul the criminal justice system instead of thinking that the citizens are accepting of encounters.
Prisons, instead of reforming and rehabilitating prisoners, have become breeding grounds, not of ordinary crime but of organised crime.
now being brought in by various states, that provide for special courts and speedy trials. Within one year we should be able to say that Person X has been convicted in a crime, and decide on his/her punishment.
On quality of prosecution
We should also improve the quality of prosecution. This survey shows that respondents feel that Adivasis, Dalits and poor, rural people are the targets. Therefore, there is a need to improve our free legal aid system. My experience in prison also shows that we have only 30% convicts and 70% undertrials. Out of all the prison inmates, Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims and the rural poor are dominant. They desperately need free legal aid, more courts and investments in forensic labs. Today, if we want extra-judicial killings to stop, we have to give a very prompt, timebound justice. To that end, our dependence on witnesses won’t be enough as it cannot lead us to conviction. We have to be dependent on technology and therefore investment in forensic labs is a must. Prisons, instead of reforming and rehabilitating prisoners, have become breeding grounds, not of ordinary crime but of organised crime. This includes chain snatching, organised theft of motor vehicles, house breaking and even violent, organised crime. Prisons are becoming places where organised criminals interact, exchange notes and are emboldened to carry out more criminal activities.
So, if we want to be prompt and professional then the only way out is strengthening the police, prosecution, forensic labs, judiciary, prisons and combined training for all of us. This will help us not to resort to extrajudicial killings but to conclude a criminal case in time and satisfy the feelings of citizens who are looking for justice. If we do not give them justice promptly, they will celebrate extra-judicial killings and the state will have to remain silent. The only way out is to overhaul the criminal justice system in a concrete manner.
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