Click to play videoNew Delhi: With senior police officers coming under the scanner in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case, encounter killings are making news like never before.
They're cops without a conscience, vigilantes in khaki who hand out their own versions of justice. Daya Nayak, Pradeep Sharma, Rajbir Singh were all cops who became a law unto themselves, men who made encounter killings their only option, even when there were alternatives.
Their reason it saying, “the criminal justice system doesn't work, and somebody needs to take the bad guys down.” However, the law-abiding police officers don’t buy this ruthless logic.
“Its not the job of the police to be executioners, judges and prosecutors all rolled into one. The police have to be investigators,” Former Mumbai Police Commissioner Julio Rebeiro said.
No encounter cop can work alone. The shooters need support of other policemen to carry out their kills. IGP Geetha Johri a senior cop who headed the team that conducted a preliminary inquiry into the Gujarat fake encounter case said in her report that Vanzara was tacitly backed by other police officers.
Former Uttar Pradesh DG Prakash Singh blames the senior police officers. “Unless they are blind, it is impossible to overlook,” he said.
Mumbai was the breeding ground for the first encounter cops. Its status as a ‘hub of underworld activity’ meant there was enough prey, for the trigger-happy policemen.
But like Daya Nayak, many encounter cops soon went from working against the mob to taking a cut of their profits. “They get in touch with gangsters, their investments handled by gangsters, loans taken from gangsters,” Former IPS Officer Y P Singh says.
With a uniform, a gun and a license to kill, when law enforcer turn into law-breakers, anyone can become an easy target. But although the rise of these contract killers is rapid, their downfall can be equally quick.
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