Hyderabad encounter: Justice Katju leads chorus of lawyers questioning police act

On Friday, the nation woke up to the shocking news of the encounter killings of the four accused in the brutal rape and murder of a female veterinarian in Hyderabad. The four accused—all in their early twenties—were "killed in an exchange of fire with police", the official version stated. 

Soon, reactions started pouring in from an emotional public, most of them welcoming and cheering the news. While the public reaction was not misplaced or surprising considering the mass outrage in the days following the rape, the said encounter has a left a lot of loopholes. A number of judges and lawyers have started questioning the authenticity of the extra-judicial executions. 

Supreme Court former judge Justice Markandey Katju, who is known to speak his mind, leads the voices criticising the police act. "Justice AN Mulla of the Allahabad High Court, in a judgment, said 'I say with all sense of responsibility, there is not a single lawless group in the whole of the country whose record of crime comes anywhere near than that of the organised gang of criminals known as the Indian Police Force," Katju hit out against the police officers engaged in the Hyderabad encounter. Terming the Friday killings a clear case of "fake encounter", Katju cited Prakash Kadam vs Ramprashad Vishwanath Gupta case, in which an SC bench presided over by him held that in cases of fake encounter, the policemen concerned must be given death sentence. 

Former Kerala High Court judge B. Kemal Pasha echoed similar views, saying this was not the way to ensure justice. He also appeared to be unconvinced about the encounter story. "The accused deserve the maximum punishment according to law and it is undoubtedly death penalty. What has happened now is what the whole of India thought was deserving for the accused. But, only if proven guilty by the court should any accused be given the penalty. What the Cyderabad police did was in line with how the public responded emotionally," he told an online media. 

Further, he questioned the way in which the encounter was executed. "If what the police force intended was encounter, they could have shot them below their knees," he said.  "The encounter is clearly against the judiciary and the rule of law in the country. But when looked upon, instances where judiciary has failed have also occurred in India," Pasha added. 

In a serious of tweets, Supreme Court lawyer and activist Karuna Nundy cautioned that the celebration across the country should be a wake-up call for the government to strengthen the judiciary and investigation process. "Now nobody will ever know if the four men killed by the police were innocent men, arrested fast to show action. And whether four of the most brutal rapists roam free, to rape and kill more women.... And what on earth were the police "investigating" at 3.30 am all this time later? When they were sleeping during the golden hour of evidence, refusing to register an FIR, when the young vet was alive?" she asked in a series of tweets. 

Lawyer and rights activist Vrinda Grover termed the incident "absolutely unacceptable". Asking people to say "no to trigger track injustice", she said, "... so all that the state will do in the name of ensuring that women live as equal and free citizens is to add to its arsenal of unlimited, arbitrary violence." She also asked for an independent judicial inquiry into the incident.

Social media was awash with reactions both supporting and criticising the encounter. Lawyer and activist S. Prasanna tweeted: "The Telengana State Government has to be dismissed under Article 356 now, pending a probe into this encounter. If they have the daring to do this under such intense media scrutiny in the case, imagine the atrocities they perpetrate in other cases!".

The gangrape-and-murder triggered nationwide outrage with the public and lawmakers demanding speedy punishment to the perpetrators. The state government had ordered setting up of a special court (fast track) to expedite the trial.