When law enforcers have blood on their hands

DNA investigations reveal that security agencies are ruthless in the way they carry out custodial killings and fake encounters

NEW DELHI/AHMEDABAD: Raziva Jamil Sheikh does not figure in any of the petitions by human rights activists on encounters in Gujarat. He doesn't find a mention in investigations into police atrocities. He isn't even being mourned by anyone around.

Sheikh remains buried in an explosive FIR in Suigam Police Station in Gujarat's northeastern district of Banaskantha district, where he was tortured to death by a group of intelligence and security officials. Sheikh is also a powerful symbol of what the secretive Indian intelligence apparatus and biased local police could do if they conspire together.

According to authoritative sources in the intelligence set-up, the murder of Sheikh, a Pakistani youth who was arrested after he sneaked into India through Rann of Kutch in 2003, has been “buried” through an informal understanding among all the agencies. His murderers, incidentally, are local officials of the Intelligence Bureau, Research and Analysis Wing, and Border Security Force.

Within days of Sheikh's death on May 12, 2003, the intelligence top brass went into overdrive to cover up the issue. Over the next two years, the local IB and R&AW officials created many hurdles and delayed even the registration of an FIR, DNA investigations reveal. Initially the interrogating team of the central agencies filed a report saying the 22-year-old's was an accidental death. "Finally an FIR was registered only in March 2005," says a senior official in the security establishment privy to the entire issue.

"At least in the cases of Indians killed in custody and fake encounters of locals there are some protests, some interventions by courts and at least a semblance of justice. But who bothers about those from Nepal and Pakistan," said a senior official in the security establishment. He says if the security agencies are ruthless in the way they carry out custodial killings and fake encounters, the story of foreigners' killed in their custody is "appalling." And Sheikh's case is a detailed sketch of what is happening in the murky world of security and intelligence agencies.

Many officials in the security establishment admit that ever since the IC 814 hijack in 1999 there has been a significant increase in the number of torture deaths and fake encounters by various forces. "I think the hijack was a trigger point. Then onwards we have seen a huge jump in such incidents. What has not really come to the notice of the right authorities is the cases of foreigners like that of Sheikh," a senior intelligence official based in Delhi told DNA. Several like him share the concerns about the agencies operating without any accountability.

After the 1999 hijack of an Indian Airlines plane, several youth of Kashmiri origin were detained in Kathmandu and illegally brought over to India by the IB. Many of these people are mysteriously missing after being handed over to the police forces of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and elsewhere. In this period the number of 'encounters' by these and other neighbouring police forces also went up significantly.

Sheikh's murder is part of such mysteries and should be investigated thoroughly to "bring accountability into our agencies," says a former IB official.

On the murder of Sheikh, a source in the central intelligence set up told DNA that there was an understanding to bury the case, though the 2005 FIR had booked five personnel from the IB, R&AW and BSF for murder. Those booked were Anandkumar Darbar and Maheshkumar Shrimali of IB, Devendrakumar Sathwara and Bharatsinh of R&AW, and Parmanand Ahir of BSF.

The post-mortem report on Sheikh's body had revealed extensive physical injuries to the youngster and it was "clear that he was tortured to death," an official who had served in Gujarat for a long time said.

According to sources in IB and RAW, the accused officials have been moved out of their postings 'to safety'.