Explained | Police encounters in India: cases, convictions and court orders

The debate over India’s police ‘encounters’ has stirred up again as a Supreme Court-appointed Commission concluded that the encounter of Disha gang-rape accused was fake.

On May 21, the Supreme Court-appointed commission headed by Justice V.S. Sirpurkar concluded that the encounter of the four persons accused in the Disha rape case was staged by the police.

The Commission found that the four accused were deliberately fired upon by the police with the intention to kill them during the encounter. Telangana’s Cyberabad police led by Commissioner V.C. Sajjanar had accompanied the accused to crime scene on December 6, 2020 when two of the accused snatched their weapons and began firing. Police claimed that despite warnings from the police to surrender, the accused refused and continued firing, resulting in their deaths.

However, the Commission refuted the police’s version and recommended that the 10 police personnel involved in the encounter be prosecuted for murder. It also held the Telangana police guilty of destroying and/or withholding evidence. The Supreme Court has now transferred the entire case to the Telangana High Court for appropriate action.

The findings of this inquiry raises the questions of how many such encounters have been staged in India through the years; whether police personnel have been held accountable for such cases; and what the judicial remedy has been in such cases.

As per the National Human Rights Commission’s (NHRC) annual report for 2018-19, there were 164 deaths due to police encounters that year. In the five years from 2013-14 to 2018-19, the number of yearly encounter deaths were 137, 188, 179, 169 and 164 respectively.

As per the report, the highest number of police encounter deaths were reported in Uttar Pradesh (23), followed by Assam (23), Maharashtra (11), Meghalaya (7), and Manipur (5). While 158 cases were registered over alleged police encounter deaths, only 98 were deemed as encounters after the NHRC’s investigations. Moreover, the NHRC has recommended disciplinary action against police personnel in only 25 cases of human rights violation (including encounter deaths) and no prosecutions of any personnel.

Similarly, in 2020, only three cases were registered against police personnel for encounter killings, according to the annual National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report. In these cases, only two policemen have been arrested, but none charge-sheeted. The report also reveals that seven cases of custodial deaths were registered in which four policemen were arrested and three charge-sheeted. There were three reported custodial deaths of under-trial prisoners while escaping from jail—one each in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Rajasthan.