“Hyderabad encounter fake, 10 cops must face trial: SC panel”

The above-mentioned quote is a recent headline in almost every newspaper this month and is of great importance. This fake encounter had taken place in the year 2019 and it is almost after three years that it is being declared that the encounter was fake. Another major issue is that because of this encounter, nobody ever got their hands on the original culprits as it was ingrained in the minds of the people that the four people killed by the police were definitely the culprits.

Apart from Police Brutality, this also cites itself as an example of drawbacks in our justice delivery system. On December 12, 2019, the Apex Court had appointed a three-member panel headed by former top court judge VS Sirpurkar to probe the killing of four men in an alleged fake encounter.[1] The other two members of the panel are former Bombay HC judge Rekha Prakash Baldota and former CBI chief DR Kartikeyan.[2] As a result of this inquiry, on the 20^th of May, 2022, the committee recommended for the ten police officers to be tried for murder.

This fake encounter is just a miniscule of the entire scenario of police brutality in India. With gradual increase in police brutality cases in India, this has been normalized as a method of extra judicial control over crimes. The unfortunate fact is that the essential policy of Rule of Law ie., audi alteram partem has no place in such cases. It is necessary to hear both the parties before deciding upon their punishment and in cases of such encounters, there is no place for hearing the other party. According to the latest data that could be authoritatively accessed (ie., of the year 2020), the total number of cases registered against police personnel for Human Rights Violations were 20[3] whereas not a single policeman was convicted. In the year 2020, out of 4720 cases registered against police personnel in cases of police brutality, only 18 were convicted whereas 234 were acquitted/discharged.[4]

According to a 2014 article by India Today, methods of torture by the police include inhuman, degrading and barbaric practices that fall squarely within the description of third-degree torture.[5] An appropriate and effective way of putting a check on police brutality is a judicial system without corrupt practices. It is extremely essential for a proper control to be exercised upon the activities of the police which result in human rights violation or other atrocities.