Click to play videoAhmedabad: A Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) team in 2002 executed a man who was legally in their custody. The reason: revenge.
Samir Khan, who was wanted for chain snatching and the murder of a constable in 1996, was on the run.
He was allegedly picked up by Gujarat Police on September 27, 2002. But three weeks later, still in police custody, he was shot dead at 0200 hrs IST in the Usmanpura area of Ahmedabad. Police say he tried to snatch an Inspector's revolver.
The postmortem report, which is now in the possession of CNN-IBN, clearly shows that Samir Khan was shot in execution style through his left temple, most unlike a natural encounter.
And the firing was at point blank range, as bullet entry points were blackened by gunpowder residue. Also the narrative of events that led to his death seem far fetched.
"What was the need for them to take him to the scene of crime at 2 in the morning after they had already got a confession in the case,” says the lawyer for Samir Khan's family, B M Gupta.
However, the then acting Commissioner of Police in Ahmedabad, Chitaranjan Singh has told CNN-IBN that an enquiry letter was sent to Vanzara to explain Samir Khan's encounter.
But no action was taken, and the enquiry passed to the Gujarat CID. The CID report too nailed Vanzara, but even then no action was taken against him.
It was then left to the Gujarat courts to question Samir Khan's fake encounter. The court then took note and dismissed the state government's case was and Khan's co-accused was also acquitted.
Apart from that, the theory to kill Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was also dismissed as "bogus" and "concocted".
The court said that the entire FIR resembled a forced confessional statement of Samir Khan.
In fact, while the police say Khan was training in Pakistan from January 1998, he was actually in Bhopal trying to get a passport.
Will the likes of Sohrabuddin, Samir Khan and even innocent people like Kausarbi continue to fall to police bullets or is there a genuine solution to these fake encounters?
Encounter or murder
The word "encounter" is now synonymous with murder often involving high profile police officials who perhaps think they can get away. Veteran police officers blame the rise in encounter killings on a failing justice system.
"Criminal justice system has to come back on rail. About 25 years ago this feature of so many encounters was never there. It is coming up now more and more. You must understand why the judicial system has become so weak. It is because of corruption. Corruption is the main cause of all this,” says former Mumbai Police commissioner Julio Ribeiro.
Hitmen in Khaki have cashed in as well with crores stashed way in real estate and firms run by frontmen. The dirty money is also shared with the political masters who have the police force in a vice like grip. And there are only a few who refuse to toe the line.
"I was asked by high level bureaucrats to plan the elimination of people. I said it's illegal,” says former Additional DGP, Gujarat, R B Sreekumar.
So is there a way to end fake encounters? The answer is amongst the dusty files in the Model Police Act, which ironically states like Gujarat refuse to accept, despite a Supreme Court order.
"It is not the job of the police to kill people. It is not the job of the police to be executioner. And the judge, you can't do that,” says Ribeiro.
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