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Police Encounters
 On
Friday, September 26th, in the early hours of the day, Chennai City Police shot
dead a gangster 'Pannayar' Venkatesan who was alleged to have been involved in
several cases of murder and extortion. It was only two months back that
Ayodhyakuppam Veeramani, another gangster, was shot dead in an encounter near
the Marina.
This is the eighth encounter by
the Chennai City Police within a period of 21 months after K Vijayakumar assumed
office as the Commissioner of Police, Chennai City. Earlier, Rajaram and
Saravanan, two Tamil extremists, Sanjay Ghate,a Mumbai gangster, Suresh and
Stalin, two robbers, and Murugesan, a house burglar, were shot dead in police
encounters.
In addition, the Chengai East
Police had shot dead Chinnamani, a notorious gangster and three history-sheeters
-- Krishnan, Govindan and Murugan. Recently, the Vellore District Police had
also shot dead a criminal in an encounter.
Even though the police claim
that all these encounters were unavoidable, and were resorted to as retaliatory
measures, so far there are no deaths among the policemen involved in any of
these encounters. Though some of the policemen were said to have been hurt in
the exchange of fire, all of them had re-joined duty. They have been performing
their official duties. Therefore, such frequent encounters by the police do
raise doubts in the minds of a section of the people as to whether the policemen
conveniently use this extra-legal method by taking recourse to the right of
defence as provided in the criminal law.
 It
may be that all the victims of these encounters were rowdy elements, gangsters,
terrorists and burglars but some will argue that in a democracy there can be no
justification for frequent encounters to eliminate even the evil elements. The
assassin of Mahatma Gandhi was not shot dead even though he killed the Father of
the Nation. This is because violence cannot be the answer to counter violence.
Moreover, can one rely solely on the versions of the police about the man who
was shot dead in the encounter? In the latest encounter involving 'Pannayar'
Venkatesan, the police had claimed that he was involved in several cases of
murder and extortion but his advocate Joel claimed that there were no cases
pending against him.
The governments in the country
and the courts should ensure that there is no misuse of fire power by the police
and that there should be no case of an innocent person suffering at their hands.
There are several legal options
available to the police to deal effectively with the terrorists and gangsters.
The Pota Act itself has wide powers. Effective use of its provisions against
gangsters and terrorists can help curb crime. The rowdies and gangsters can
easily be tackled under the provisions of Goondas Act whereby the detenus cannot
come out on bail for one year.
Taking recourse to extra-legal
methods may be justifiable only in extraordinary situations and should not be a
frequently exercised option. At the same time, administrators of justice should
also realise that the wheels of justice move in a painfully slow manner and
sometimes gangsters are freed, exploiting flimsy, technical grounds or for
reasons extraneous to the principles of justice. At times like these, it is
tempting for the police to seek other remedies if all their hard work should not
go waste and if society is to be protected from the inhuman atrocities of
gangsters. The advocates of human rights should realise too that the victims of
gangsters enjoyed no rights at all, let alone human rights, at the hands of
these barbaric elements, who have no place in a civilised society and whose only
philosophy in life is murder for gain and exploitation for self-aggrandisement.
It is an irony that those who use children and women as human shields talk of
human rights.
Harvey
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