Masihuzzama Ansari | India Tomorrow
LUCKNOW, AUGUST 16—Many people in Azamgarh district of East Uttar Pradesh are questioning the police claim of encounters in which several persons lost their lives and many got severe injuries.
Almost all the victims are reported to Dalits, OBC Yadavs and some Muslims.
One of them is Ajay Yadav of Saraimeer, a sleeping town in the district.
Speaking to India Tomorrow, Ajay Yadav said that it was in May 2018 when police apprehended him when he was driving his bike and took him to the police station.
“Cops tied my hands and legs with ropes and even blindfolded me”, Yadav said with tears rolling down his eyes.
“The SOG sleuths came after that. They forced me to sit in a Sumo car and took me to a secluded spot. They untied my hands and within minutes, they shot me in my knee”, he said.
Ajay’s father Satyaram Yadav, said “The police had shot a bullet in one of legs of his two years ago and we are doing medical treatment till today. We are poor people and don’t have money for medicine and hospitals. Our child cannot even walk properly and yet, the police take him into custody every now and then over flimsy charges”.
Raising serious question over official police version of the encounter, Satyaram said “Police took away my son in my presence and we heard the news of encounter within an hour. My son is totally innocent and this is grave injustice to us. We are living under terror of the UP police and they come any time to pick him up”.
We fear for his life daily,” he said.
His mother said, “My son is not fit for doing any work anymore, thanks to the police. Police can come any and take him away. We don’t have any regular source of income nor we can run our house properly. The family is ruined and disturbed over this inhuman police behaviour”.
According to local activists, as many as nine people have been gunned down in police encounters in the district in the last three years state and there are dozens of cases where the victims were shot in their legs. Shockingly, the victims are mostly Dalits, OBCs and Muslims
Rihai Manch leader Rajeev Yadav said, “There have been around 1800 “half encounters” during the tenue of CM Yogi Adityanath across UP. Most of the victims were shot in the leg below the knee by the cops”. He gives the term of “half encounter” to the incidents in which the alleged “target” is not killed but injured serious.
He alleged that UP police had shot 31 persons on the pretext of encounter between January 2014 to October 2018.
“Out of them, 22 criminals had sustained gunshot injuries in their left leg while nine sustained injuries in the right leg below the knee”, says a report. According to the report, none of the criminals sustained injuries in their bones which puts a serious question mark on the issue of encounters.
Rajeev Yadav further said, “The encounter juggernaut that started under Yogi Government, refuses to stop. All encounters have the same story and the bullets are also fired in the same pattern by the police which raises question mark over the entire process and its legality,” he said.
Referring to Ajay Yadav, he said “We have approached the national human rights commission over the issue and directions have been issued to state Chief Secretary to take action but nothing has happened so far”.
He said, “Police target at a particular spot in the left leg every time. In order to make the fake encounter real, the policemen tie their victims’ legs with a wet sack so that traces of bullet material cannot be retrieved. The modus operandi of bullet firing in the legs of Dalits and OBC youths reflects the institutionalised anti-Dalit & anti-OBC ideology which openly advocates that we will ensure that the backward classes are brought to the knees or relegated to the lowest rungs of the society”.
He said that a petition seeking reinvestigation of fake encounters has been submitted to the government, no action has been taken so far.
