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| | The Legal Needs Network is not currently active and cannot accept new posts | | Police raj? | Views: 962 | | Dec 16, 2008 5:54 am | | Police raj? | # |
RVIyengar | |
Police raj?
In an action that has raised many disturbing questions, three young men hailing from Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh were gunned down in an alleged 'encounter' by the local police recently.
The three youth - Srinivas and his accomplices Sanjay and Harikrishna – were arrested by the state police a couple of days before the ‘encounter’ incident, for throwing acid on the faces of two girls, Swapnika and Pranitha, studying in a local engineering college (both the girls are said to be in a serious condition in a hospital).
Reports indicate that Srinivas, a neighbour of Swapnika, had been harassing the girl for a while. Though Swapnika’s father had complained about Srinivas’ behaviour to the police earlier, no action was taken by the police on the complaint.
In the meanwhile, Srinivas decided to take revenge on the girl for spurning his ‘love’. So he, along with two of his friends, threw acid at Swapnika and her friend when they were returning from college.
The acid attack incident led to huge public outcry and outrage, with public and student and women organizations demanding stringent punishment for the accused.
The police soon arrested the three men and remanded them to custody.
However, within a few days of their arrest, the police shot them dead.
The police version of the event goes like this: One fine morning the police took the three men to a forest area nearby to recover the motorcycle used by the men in the incident (where the men had confessed to have hid the two-wheeler). Once in the forest area, the three men allegedly attacked the police with acid and knives which they had hid there earlier. According to the SP of Warangal, “They (accused) tried to spray acid and attack with the weapons and knives. And so our people reacted and the three accused were killed. Definitely they had criminal intention to harm us.”
While no one is ready to buy the police version, the killing of the three men had been welcomed by the public, student community and women’s organizations. There were reports that many college students and women's organizations distributed sweets on hearing the news of the gunning down of the accused.
Since the public mood was totally against the perpetrators of the acid attack, not many were ready to question the police action. The father of Srinivas, the main accused, too refused to take back his son’s body, saying that the boy deserved the punishment and that he wouldn’t perform his last rites.
There are also reports that the police would not have done it without the government’s blessings. Another section feels that the police killed the men to cover up their bungling (they didn’t act on the complaints of the girl’s father earlier).
However, some civil rights/human rights activists have questioned the police version and demanded action against the policemen involved. According to a civil rights lawyer, “It (the gunning down of three men) is spine-chilling. A system that loses faith in the judicial system and in the rule of law is complete anarchy. We are heading towards chaos.”
While a majority of the people do feel that the police took law into their own hands to hand out ‘justice’, not many feel sorry for the three young men gunned down, without being given an opportunity for a fair trial.
Private Reply to RVIyengar | | Dec 16, 2008 5:57 am | | re: Police raj? | # | 
SOEB FATEHI | | being from Mumbai my first reaction to the subject line was, "why police him? what has he done now?"
Private Reply to SOEB FATEHI | | Dec 16, 2008 6:06 am | | re: re: Police raj? | # |
RVIyengar | |
The original title I had given this thread was “Is the police action justified?” Then I deleted it to correct a typo and reposted the same. But ryze obviously considered it an act of spamming and refused to accept the repost. Then I had to change the title, and you ended up seeing 'Raj' even in the lower case!Private Reply to RVIyengar | | |
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