By IndiaTomrrow.net
New Delhi, May 8: Noted lawyer and human rights activist Prashant Bhushan on Tuesday said that the so called encounters in Uttar Pradesh are not encounters but they are cold-blooded murders under the Yogi Adityanath-led UP government.
After releasing ‘Countering Silence’ report on extra judicial killings in UP in a press conference at Press Club of India in New Delhi, Bhushan said that the issue of encounters is very serious.
“It is a very serious issue and if it goes on like that then the rule of law can’t be maintained here in this country,” he pointed out.
Activists believe that over thousand such killings took place in UP since the new government was formed in March 2017. More than 50 people were killed and many, including some police officials, were injured.
Under the guidance of Bhushan, few victims on Monday approached National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) pleading for an independent probe these killings.
The report was prepared by the human rights forum Citizen Against Hate in which they have documented 16 incidents of extrajudicial killing in UP and 12 cases of Mewat (Haryana) between 2017-18. The report, which is based on family narratives of victim and legal analysis, questions whole narrative of these killings and termed them as ‘pre-meditated extra-judicial executions’.
“Almost all the victims of these killings belong to vulnerable social groups – Muslims, Dalits and Bahujans, and come from low-economic households,” the report reads.
“All the families, without fail, state that the victims were abducted by the police or entrapped through their informer networks. Bodies of all victims showed visible signs of torture along with close range bullet injuries above the waist- a fact that is corroborated by the post mortem reports accessed by the team,” it further reads.
Bhushan argues that it may be true that some of them may have criminal history but even if they were criminal, government can’t kill them like that.
He said that even cases were fabricated against those who didn’t have any criminal history to justify the killing.
Bushan said that there is a clear guideline from the Supreme Court for an independent probe in all such cases but in UP police asked neighbouring police station to probe it.
“We have appealed to the NHRC to set up a committee and probe these encounters because a free investigation is very necessary.”
He said that nowadays CBI can’t do a free probe because it is under the BJP government.
Apart from victim families Rajeev Yadav of Rihai Manch, Akram Akhtar, Mangla Verma, Vipul Kumar and Fawaz Shaheen also addressed the media.
