Uttar Pradesh to Supreme Court: No bias in police encounters

Being branded an encounter-hungry state targeting criminals belonging to a minority community, Uttar Pradesh reeled out data in the Supreme Court on Friday to rubbish the allegations.

Countering the charges made through a public interest litigation, the state said over four lakh criminals were netted, about 400 illegal weapon factories busted, and close to 30,000 weapons and bombs seized from hardened criminals. Of the 48 criminals died in police encounters, only 18 were from minority community,

State Joint Secretary (Home) Sunil Kumar Pandey submitted the statistics in an affidavit to a bench headed by CJI Ranjan Gogoi and sought the dismissal of the PIL for "cherry-picking" 14 instances of police encounters in which 13 dead hailed from minority community. Drawing the complete picture, the state said, "The petition merely to create prejudice and publicity selectively cherry-picked news articles to suit a pre-defined narrative about certain communities...which was ex-facie malicious and incorrect."

Complimenting the state police by valiantly pursuing criminals, the state presented facts to show how the encounters proved costly even for the police force which lost four of its brave men and 319 who suffered firearm injuries. On the other hand, 48 criminals were killed and 409 injured, which the state government termed unfortunate but unavoidable as it was a necessary action by police in self-defence.

To blunt the main allegation of petitioner NGO Peoples Union for Civil Liberty, the state said of the 48 killed, 30 were Hindus.

The affidavit said, "Hardened criminals wanted in a number of serious criminal cases roaming freely is antithetic to preservation of rule of law and maintenance of law and order, which was earlier the case in state of UP." Denying the PIL's claim that the police was out to kill criminals, the state clarified that action by police is not based on a criminal's religion, caste, creed, birth or residence.

The PIL served a good occasion for the state to highlight its achievements. From the time the Yogi Adityanath government came to power in March 2017 till March 31, 2018, a total of 3,19,141 persons were arrested in the state and 98,526 surrendered. The police busted 402 illegal arms factories in the state, seized 530 guns, 26,244 pistols, 1136 revolvers, 388 rifles, two AK-47/56 rifles, two SLRs, ten carbines, 6,264 detonators, 2107 bombs and 52,713 cartridges.

The state denied of giving any special reward or accelerated promotion to policemen involved in the encounters related to 48 deaths other than the prize money already declared on these wanted criminals. Instead, in relation to the encounter deaths, 47 FIRs were registered and in 41 cases, charge sheet filed.

UTTAR PRADESH GOVT’S DEFENCE

• Of the 48 criminals killed by the police since March 2017, 30 were Hindus, the state informed the top court
   
• Four cops lost their lives and 319 received gunshots during fights with criminals, UP govt said in its defence