The encounter spree by UP Police suffered a setback when the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) issued a notice to the state government seeking a report within four week on the alleged encounter at Gautam Buddha Nagar (Noida) earlier this week.
Taking sup motu cognizance of media reports about the killing of gangster Sumit Gujjar in Greater Noida area on Tuesday(October 3), the NHRC issued notices to the Chief Secretary and DGP on Thursday asking them to submit a detailed report within four weeks.
As per a NHRC release issued on Thursday, family members of the deceased alleged that Sumit was killed in an orchestrated encounter after the police picked him up from a market. They along with villagers protested against the police action near the mortuary at Sector- 94 of NOIDA and also blocked traffic at Mahamaya Flyover for about 45 minutes last Tuesday demanding registration of a murder case against the police team.
The Commission observed that allegations levelled by family members and villagers, if true, raised serious issue of violation of human rights of the deceased and the aggrieved family. “Elimination of a criminal in such unlawful manner could never send a good message to a civilized society. As has been emphasized time and again, the police does not have the right to take away life of a human being. It is not the lawful way to deal with criminals,”the communique said.
The Commission has issued guidelines to deal with matters relating to deaths in police encounter which have been circulated vide a letter dated 12th May, 2010 written by Chairperson, NHRC to Chief Ministers of all states and Union Territories.
The locl media had reported that Sumit Gujjar was wanted in a case of double murder and robbery and he was taken into custody by Noida police but no satisfactory answers were given by police officers. It was only when the television broke the news that his family members came to know about his encounter. Interestingly, police brass denied allegations of a fake encounter.
Police personnel at Kasna and Bisrakh police stations claimed that Gujjar was shot dead in an encounter in which three of his aides managed to escape. SSP of Gautam Budh Nagar luv Kumar has assured of a fair probe into the encounter.