Cops’ “Intent To Cause Death”: Apex Court Report on 2019 Hyderabad Encounter
The report of the Supreme Court (SC) panel recommending action against the policemen who carried out the encounter could land Telangana in trouble.
- In the year 2019, Justice VS Sirpurkar Commission of Inquiry was constituted by the Supreme Court to probe the encounter of four rape accused.
- The Commission of Inquiry has recommended filing of murder charges against the officers involved in the alleged encounter.
- The police have claimed that there was a lot of public pressure for immediate justice, due to which this encounter had to be done in self-defense. At the same time, the civil society has called it an act of extrajudicial killing.
- Extrajudicial murder means the killing of a person by a person holding an official position without following any legal process.
- Section-149 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Cr.P.C.)-1973 allows the police to act to the best of its ability to prevent any cognizable offence. In this way they get protection from encounter cases.
Causes of extrajudicial killings in India:
Frustration over unnecessary delays due to widespread corruption, faulty policing, lack of confidence in the criminal justice system, or improper use/misuse of the judicial process, etc.
Key concerns on extrajudicial killings-
- This is a violation of fundamental rights under Article 14, 21, 22 etc of the Constitution.
- These undermine the principle of natural justice and give the police the power to act arbitrarily.
- It diverts attention from the core issue of bridging the loopholes in the criminal justice system.
- The Supreme Court (in the 2014 PUCL vs. State of Maharashtra case) and the National Human Rights Commission have framed guidelines for such cases.
- These guidelines are to be followed for fixing accountability in cases of custodial deaths.
Source – The Hindu
