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Yes, India fakes encounters, says
Supreme Court
WSN Bureau
NEW DELHI:
Fake
encounters are happening throughout the country, and they are worse
than cold-blooded murders, India’s Supreme Court said on Tuesday. In
a system where every selfrespecting citizen down to smalltime
criminal knows that fake encounters are part of the socalled
national security strategy of India, the Supreme Court on Tuesday
said these were “worse than cold-blooded murder”. It condemned the
virtual norm of using fake encounters to get gallantry awards and
out-of-turn promotions.
“Just for
getting gallantry awards innocent people are termed as terrorists
and killed in fake encounters in Jammu and Kashmir and the North
East. It’s worse than cold-blooded murder,” Justice Aftab Alam said
during the hearing of self-proclaimed godman Swami Shraddhananda’s
appeal against a Karnataka High Court verdict confirming his death
penalty.
The court was
hearing arguments of Karnataka’s counsel Sanjay Hegde, who wanted
the court to grant him death penalty. Responding to Hegde’s
arguments, Justice Alam said: “Even fake encounters are
pre-meditated…the whole thing is devilishly planned.”
Justice G.S.
Singhvi, another Judge on the three-judge bench, supported Justice
Alam’s remarks, saying this was happening throughout the country and
even the police personnel were guilty of it in nexus with Naxals.
“In the so called encounters justification offered by police on
Naxals is that if we don’t kill them they will kill us,” Justice
Singhvi said.
Punjab has
seen fake encounters for years now and large sections of Indian
civil society were also guilty of not raising their voice.
30
April 2008
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