Encounter and bulldozers come to mind as soon as the name of UP comes. On Thursday itself, the encounter of Asad, son of gangster Atiq Ahmed, is now on the lips of not only Uttar Pradesh but the whole country.
Last month, in a press conference, the UP government released figures that more than 10,000 police encounters took place in the six years of the BJP rule. Of these, 23,069 criminals were arrested. 4,911 criminals were injured in encounters while 178 were killed by police bullets.
But there is another aspect to these figures as well. According to the National Human Rights Commission, 93 complaints of fake encounters reached the Yogi government in 3 out of 6 years i.e. between 2017 and 2020.
Not only this, the complaints of such fake encounters increased by 1000% as soon as BJP came to power. There were only 4 complaints of fake encounters in 2016-17…it increased to 44 in 2017-18.
Opposition parties blame BJP’s policies for this. Many opposition leaders have also alleged that fake encounters are taking place in BJP-ruled states in the name of law and order.
However, the other aspect of this encounter connection of BJP is even more interesting. The BJP has been in power in Assam since 2016. The complaints of fake encounters came down by 41% as soon as the party came to power here, and have continued to decline since then.
Know, what is this encounter connection of BJP… which state receives the maximum number of fake encounter complaints in the country… and what happens to these complaints?
First, see how many complaints of fake encounters are there in the country.
Complaints of more than 1300 fake encounters in 8 years… means questioning the validity of an encounter every other day
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in its annual report gives an account of how many complaints of fake encounters have been received from which state.
The last annual report of NHRC came in 2019-20. Investigation of reports from 2012-13 to 2019-20 shows that in these 8 years, the commission received a total of 1,356 complaints of fake encounters.
That is, on average, one or the other encounter was declared fake every other day.
Complaints of fake encounters increased after the Yogi government came to power in Uttar Pradesh
In Uttar Pradesh, in 2017, the BJP formed the government by winning the elections and Yogi Adityanath became the Chief Minister. 2022 BJP won the election for the second consecutive time and Yogi Adityanath again became the CM.
So far, the government itself accepts the talk of more than 10,000 police encounters during the 6 years of BJP rule. The state government says that this strictness is necessary to deal with the increasing influence of organized crime and the mafia in the state.
But with the increase in the strictness of the police, questions started to arise on the encounters. From 2012-13 to 2016-17, the number of complaints of fake encounters in Uttar Pradesh did not even reach 10.
But in 2017-18, these complaints directly increased by 1000% to 44. Although this figure decreased in the subsequent two years, never came below 20.
As of now, NHRC has not released the data on complaints of fake encounters in 2020-21 and 2021-23.
UP Police has accidentally killed innocent people in an encounter
Critics of the state government’s encounter policy in UP say that due to the lack of control over the police, the possibility of mistakes also increases.
Raising questions on encounters is a different matter, in these encounters, even ordinary citizens have died due to the mistake of the police.
Statistics from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) show that between 2019 and 2021, 15 innocent people died accidentally in police encounters in the country. Of these, 4 deaths occurred in Uttar Pradesh.
Now see the condition of Assam
BJP government in Assam since 2016…Complaints of fake encounters decreased as soon as BJP came. NHRC data for the last 8 years in Assam shows that between 2012-13 to 2014-15, complaints of fake encounters were very high.
In 2014-15, complaints of 84 fake encounters were received from the state. However, in the very next year i.e. 2015-16, these complaints came down from 41% to 49.
Since then, such complaints have continuously decreased in the state. In 2019-20, only 10 complaints of fake encounters were received from Assam.
Most complaints of fake encounters in Chhattisgarh… The BJP-Congress equal rule here in 8 years
Most of the complaints of fake encounters in India come to NHRC from Chhattisgarh. NHRC has received 317 fake encounters complaints from this state in 8 years between 2012-13 to 2019-20.
This is 23% of such complaints received from the entire country during this period.
The special thing is that from 2012 till now both BJP and Congress have ruled the state. From 2003 to 2018, there was a BJP government in the state. While Congress is in power since 2018.
Despite the change of governments here, there has been no significant difference in the complaints of fake encounters.
Now see what happens to these complaints of fake encounters.
More than 50% of complaints received by NHRC in 8 years are still pending with it
Between 2012-13 to 2019-20, the NHRC received 1,356 complaints of fake encounters.
The latest annual report shows that 694 of these complaints are pending with the NHRC.
Even the preliminary inquiry into 4 complaints has not been done yet. While there are 690 cases in which either the State Police has not sent its report to the NHRC or the NHRC has not yet read the report sent by it.
That means more than 50% of complaints of fake encounters are still pending. Only 44 cases of fake encounters were registered in 9 years… 12 policemen were arrested, and none were punished.
NCRB statistics show that between 2012 and 2021, a total of 44 cases of fake encounters were registered across the country. Out of these, the charge sheet could be filed in only 6 cases. 12 policemen were arrested, but no one was punished.
In 2016, a maximum of 13 cases of fake encounters were registered in the entire country. Chargesheets were also filed in 4 of these cases, but no arrests were made.
NHRC recommended compensation of Rs 64 lakh on fake encounters in 3 years…not yet received
According to the NHRC’s annual report for 2019-20, it recommended compensation to the victim’s family in 14 cases of fake encounters between 2017 and 2020.
The total amount of this compensation is 64 lakhs, which has to be paid to 6 states Assam, Manipur, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Maharashtra, but till now this compensation has not been given.
NHRC has recommended a maximum compensation of Rs 15 lakh in 2019 in the case of Jharkhand. A maximum of 7 cases of compensation are from Assam.
NHRC has also recommended compensation in two cases of UP.
But so far no state government has given compensation to the families of the victims.
