Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh director general of police has freshly issued guidelines to be followed in all cases of police encounters, with directions for the deceased’s autopsy by a two-doctor panel and its videography, as well as photography at the encounter site and encounter scene recreation by a forensic team, featuring among them.
Police encounters in Uttar Pradesh have attracted widespread criticism, with the Opposition accusing UP Police of “fake encounters”, including in the recent Sultanpur dacoity and Bahraich violence cases.
UP DGP Prashant Kumar, in the second week of October, issued a letter with 16 pointers to the additional director generals (ADGs) of police in all zones, the ADG of Special Task Force, inspector generals (IG), deputy inspector of generals of all police ranges, and the IG of the Anti-Terrorist Squad. His letter mentioned that the Supreme Court issued guidelines to be followed in cases of deaths and severe injuries inflicted on people in police custody in the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) versus the government of Maharashtra case.
In line with the SC guidelines, the UP DGP, earlier in 2017, issued a letter to police officers on what they have to do in encounter cases. “After studying letter number 22/2017 in-depth, all subordinates be briefed so that there is no laxity in compliance with the Supreme Court guidelines,” the 11 October letter of the DGP reminded senior officers.
A copy of the letter went viral on social media Tuesday.
The letter, a copy of which ThePrint has accessed, requires a panel of two doctors to conduct an autopsy, and a forensic team to collect photos at the encounter site, with the subsequent investigation into the encounter using the evidence collected in these processes.
“A copy of the photograph should separately be kept as (a) record in the case records,” the letter says.
The family members of the deceased have to be informed about any such death immediately via suitable means, the letter adds.
“If the family members of the deceased are witness(es) in the panchayatnama, it (is to) be considered proof of them having been informed,” it says. “If any relative has been informed via any police station, guard or gram pradhan, the same should be documented and noted in the general diary.”
Moreover, a case lodged in connection with a police encounter should be investigated by a police officer from a different police station or a different unit, such as the crime branch, the fresh guidelines state. An FIR is lodged in every police encounter death.
“One police officer in the probe team conducting the inquiry should be of a rank higher than the senior-most cop in the team that conducted the encounter,” the letter adds.
The letter also directs officers to ensure the surrender of all weapons used by the police in any encounter. Additionally, the injured suspect is to be subjected to the hand wash procedure, and the arms recovered sent for a ballistics examination.
“In cases where the report of the ballistic examination is awaited from the forensic science laboratory, the same be expedited, and a responsible police officer be deployed for this purpose,” the letter says.
In all cases where the investigation is complete, the ballistics report, it adds, should be sent to court in a CD. The CD should include the medical reports of all police officers and the injured or deceased.
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‘Guidelines are not new but often go ignored’
When contacted, a senior police officer who has served in the UP STF for years told ThePrint that directives issued by the Supreme Court or the National Human Rights Commission cover all the guidelines issued by the UP DGP, but the guidelines often go ignored.
“The directive of informing family members of the deceased immediately after is already covered under the SC guidelines in the D.K. Basu case. Further, videography of all such encounters has been made mandatory under section 105 of the BNSS. The courts are now seeking videography of all such encounters and do not grant police the remand custody of the accused if they do not produce the videography,” the officer said. “Autopsies of the deceased are not conducted by a panel always but now autopsies by a panel of two doctors has been made compulsory.”
Another police officer who has served in West UP for years said the police call in a forensic team for encounter scene recreation only in special report (SR) cases, which include murder, dacoity, theft, loot, and sensational encounters that attract media attention. Now, it has been made mandatory for all encounters.
“The person arrested has to be made aware of his right to have someone informed of his arrest or detention as soon as he is put under arrest or detained. An entry has to be made in the diary at the place of detention regarding the arrest of the person — which shall also disclose the name of the next friend of the person informed of the arrest and the names and particulars of the police officials in whose custody the arrestee is,” state the SC guidelines in the D.K. Basu case.
Another police officer said subjecting an arrested person to the hand wash procedure is a requirement under the erstwhile Evidence Act and the current Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam. The procedure is crucial to establishing that the suspect shot the firearm recovered from him.
Commenting on the DGP’s letter, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav said the police and doctors all belong to the government, indicating that the guidelines are not foolproof. He added that the UP Police “remains ahead of all other police forces in fake encounter cases” and it is under pressure over its actions now.
The Opposition has been leading a scathing attack on the Yogi Adityanath government over the encounter killings of Mangesh Yadav and Anuj Pratap Singh in the Sultanpur dacoity case and the encounters of five suspects following the Bahraich violence.
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav has said that the encounter killing of Anuj Pratap Singh was “to balance the killing” of Mangesh Yadav. The Congress has attributed the Bahraich violence to the failure of both the state government and the administration and termed the police encounters connected with it as “fake”.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)