A Brutal Encounter Killing In India

Sharon · #1 ● 02-04-2016, 12:07 AM

An encounter is a euphemism used in India since the late 20th century to describe extra-judicial killings by the police or the armed forces of suspected gangsters or terrorists in gun battles. In a fake encounter, the police or armed forces kill the suspects when they are either in custody or are unarmed, and then claim to have shot them in self-defence. In such cases, the police may plant weapons on or near the corpses to provide a justification for killing the individual. To explain the discrepancy between records that show that the individual was in police custody at the time of his "encounter", the police may say that the suspect had escaped. Such killings are not authorised by any court or by the law.

In the 1990s and the mid-2000s, the Mumbai Police used encounter killings to cripple the city's underworld and break down a rampant extortion racket. The police officers, who came to be known as "encounter specialists", believed that these killings delivered speedy justice. They were criticised by human rights activists.

The following killing occurred in a village in Bengal back in 2011. The villagers heard loud noises followed by the sound of gun fire for about 15-30 minutes.

A third year college student arrested for allegedly sheltering the victim and the police claimed to have seized a laptop. The family said that there was no laptop in the student's bag and instead money and the family's IDs were stolen.

Injuries sustained were as follows:

Injuries on Head:
1. Right eye was hanging from the socket.
2. Lower Jaw was missing and there were burn marks.
3. Part of the back of the skull and brain were missing.
4. In four places on the face were bayonet like stab wounds.
5. One third of the throat was had been slashed.

Hand Injuries:
1. Right forearm was broken.
2. The right arm had three bullet injuries.
3. One third of the left hand index finger was removed.

Leg Injuries:
1. Both ankles are broken and the left foot was dangling.
2. The left sole skin was missing and burnt.

There were more than 30 Bayonet like cut injuries on front of the body.