When Veerappan, the notorious forest brigand, and his three associates were gunned down by police in the dark hours of October 18, 2004, there was popular support for the police action. Yet in the following years there has been some discontent in the civil society over the alarming increase in the number of encounter killings by the police. Since the Veerappan encounter, about 40 cases of encounter killings have been reported in the State. And in 2010 alone, five such cases - four men got killed in February and one in March – were reported in the media.The victim-families’ versions of the ‘story’ raise serious doubts about the claim of encounter killings. In an investigation conducted by this reporter, top police officers in the State and the high officials in the State Human Rights Commission either evaded the questions about the loopholes in the police version or simply refused to respond.
There is no magisterial inquiry held in any of these cases abided by the National Human Rights Commission’s revised guidelines on encounter deaths in December, 2003. It had ordered to have ‘the next of kin of the deceased to be invariably associated in the inquiry.’
Natarajan’s case
Natarajan, 23, was allegedly shot dead in the early hours of March 26 near the Padunelli check-post in Kancheepuram district, about 100 kilometres from Chennai. The police claimed that Natarajan tried to attack them with lethal weapons and hurled petrol bombs damaging a jeep while trying to stop the motorcycle he was riding. They opened fire in self-defence and shot him dead.
However, Natarajan’s mother, Bhamavati, and sister, Vanaja, are suspicious about this police-version. They said that Natarajan was released from jail in 2008. “After that he had been living in his room at Thiru Vi Ka Nagar (which is a few kilometres away from their house at BRN Garden, Broadway, Chennai). There was no case pending against him and he had even visited us just three days before his death, on March 23,” said Natarajan’s sister.
“I had spoken to my son over phone even in the night before he got killed,” asserted Natarajan’s mother. “He had called me on phone at around 9 O’clock that night and had told me that he was calling from his room at Thiru Vi Ka Nagar. Nothing was apprehensive in his voice. But the next morning we saw on TV at 7 O’clock that police have killed my son in an encounter. It said that he was killed in Kancheepuram at 3 O’ clock in the morning. But, I see no possibility of him going to Kancheepuram that night after talking to me a few hours ago,” she added.
Though the family had rushed to the District Headquarters Hospital in Kancheepuram, they were not allowed to see the body till the RDO came to the hospital and gave them permission. “Post-mortem was already conducted before we reached the hospital,” said Vanaja. “There were marks of bullets on the hip, right-arm and on both left and right sides of the chest. One bullet was penetrated through the stomach. Also there was a circle of stab marks on the stomach. He was badly hit on his mouth. If it was an encounter, how come there was this kind of torture on his body? Suspecting the claim of the encounter, we insisted on conducting the post-mortem again. The police had not taken our signature for the first post-mortem. However, they refused to conduct it again,” she said.
“Initially we refused to take the body until another post-mortem is done. But the police threatened to dump the body here if we didn’t receive it. They offered us money and gave Rs. 50,000 to Natarajan’s father. Finally, we couldn’t stand the threat and we had to receive and bury the body without a second post-mortem,” said Bhamavati.
‘Dindigul’ Pandi and Guduvancheri Velu
A month before Natarajan’s death, the police had shot dead two men in the outskirts of Chennai in a chilling encounter story which made headlines in the local media and created a furore in the city.
Pandi alias ‘Dindigul’ Pandi (42), and his associate Guduvancheri Velu (34) were allegedly at shot dead at Neelankarai on February 8.
According to the police, a police party had chased the vehicle in which Pandi and Velu were traveling and before they could stop the vehicle and apprehend the two, the duo allegedly opened fire from country-made pistol and threw explosives and tried to attack with an ‘aruval’. In self-defence, yet again the police opened fire which killed the two.
The kin of the victims are however emphatic that it was a fake encounter killing. Pandi’s nephew, Elangovan (18), and cousin brothers, Vaidya Nathan (45) and S. Vijay (26), re-visited the encounter spot at 10th Avenue, Sea Shore town, Neelankari with this reporter and explained the loopholes in the police version.
“This was clearly a staged encounter,” said Elangovan. “Pandi and Velu were arrested at around 9 O’clock in the night before their death from their temporary bungalow in Erode. They were five people living in that bungalow during those days. Kattai Raja, Pandi’s associate, had witnessed this arrest as he was there on the spot. Raja could manage to escape from the police. However, now he is in the Vellore jail. It is mysterious that what circumstances led the police to kill them the very next day of their arrest,” he said.
Though the incident occurred in the broad daylight there is no single witness to the whole drama of encounter. Elangovan showed how impossible is it for a Tata Sumo car to take a U-turn from the right side, as the police claimed, and block the Scorpio car they were chasing. “See the narrowness of this road in its right side, do you think that it is possible at all for the Tata Sumo of the police to overtake the Scorpio Pandi and Velu said to have travelled from the right side of this road?” asked Elangovan. “If it did cross from the right, then it would have clashed with the Scorpio and there should have been bigger damage to the Scorpio than the police had shown,” he added
“Besides that, importantly, the corpse of Pandi had smelled of a strong decay, when his mother and family saw it in the hospital mortuary on February 9. This indicated that Pandi had been dead for longer than the police reported time of death of February 8 at 3 p.m,” pointed out Vaidya Nathan. “Later, when the family wanted to bury Pandi’s body near the tomb of his brother, the police didn’t allow us for that. They compelled us to cremate the body, instead. Also, it was suspicious of them for unnecessarily hastening the cremation. They got the cremation ground at Arumbakkam opened at 10:30 in the night which otherwise closes at 6 in the evening. They, also, didn’t allow us to take the body for homage to Pandi’s sister’s house on the way to the cremation ground,” he added.
“We suspect it to be a custodial death which the police staged as an encounter killing. Pandi’s mother has filed a petition in the Madras High Court seeking a judicial inquiry of custodial death of Pandi. We hope truth will come out one day,” said Vijay.
Other Cases
Besides the cases which made headlines, human rights organizations have documented a few other cases of encounter killings.
Gopi, who was killed on november 16, 2008, was in custody on the day of his death. ‘Two days before his death he had called his mother and sister and had told that he was in police custody,’ the petition stated. He had told them that even god can’t save him then; that he was going to be killed by the police. Gopi’s mother, pappathi, and sister, Poornima, had explained this in an interview to the daily, Malai Malar, three days after his death.
In the case of Vellai Ravi who was killed along with his associate Gunasekharan on August 1, 2008, was acquitted of all charges in the cases against him by a special court in 2003. The super intent of police had sent a verification report to his family in 2009 certifying that according to the Bellari District Police records Guna was not involved in any criminal cases from January 1, 1995 until his death.
Manal Medu Sankar was killed in an encounter on February 6, 2007, while being taken by police to Madhurai from a hearing in Nagai. He was killed by police despite of his father’s petition in the Supreme Court apprehending his son’s murder by police and the subsequent order by the Court that Sankar be given police protection.
Similarly, on April 1, 2008 at 12.30 AM, Mithun Chakravarthi was arrested in Chennai and Mithun’s mother sent a telegram to several authorities on 2.4.2008 at 11:50 am, including SHRC, District Collector of Thanjavur, and Chief Justice of Madras High Court that a fake encounter was being planned against her son. Despite all these, Mithun Chakravarthi was shot dead by police the very next day.
Public Interest Litigation
The spate of encounter killings did evoke a response from human rights organizations. Besides a few press releases issued to condemn the fake encounter killings and demanding probe into them, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed in the Madras High Court. The petitioner, Henri Tiphagne, Executive Director of People’s Watch, a human rights organisaton, sought a judicial commission headed by a retired High Court judge to probe the ‘encounter deaths’ in the State
The court documents relating to the case, which was accessed by this reporter, documented cases of encounter deaths in the State. The petitioner said that the orgainsation has been monitoring encounter killings in the State since the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) issued its revised guidelines to the state governments on encounter killings.
“As per the NHRC guideline, every case of ‘encounter’ death requires registration of FIR as murder. The onus of proof is on the police to prove that the killing occurred in self-defence during the course of trial or investigation. However, the police do not register FIR against the concerned police officer in such cases in the State. Moreover, it is seen that they are going to the extend of naming peple and getting them shot, which clearly shows these are not the cases of shooting for self defence,” said Mr. Tiphange. He also questioned the police and the government for giving gallantry awards to the police officers who conducted encounter killing before they prove the claim of the encounter. “It violates the NHRC guideline,” he said.
The petition illustrates case studies of suspected fake encounters. It said that there were excess torture and abuse on the body of Marimuthu who was killed on January 13, 2007. Skin was missing and torn on his arms and legs. There were severe burns on his arms and thighs and singes on his beard. Also, there was blood on his mouth and the flesh on his cheek was torn. The report states that all these things had no explanation by the police. Marimuthu’s parents had deposed before the RDO that his was a planned murder.
Similar response from Police and Human Rights Commission
Both National and State Human Rights Commissions are included as respondents in the petition filed by People’s Watch. “Human Rights Commissions have not taken any suo moto action against the State and the police department for not following its own guidelines,” said Mr. Thiphange. However, when approached by this reporter, officers in the Tamil Nadu State Human Rights Commission refused to talk anything on encounter killings.
Though the Tamil Nadu Director General of police Letika Saran agreed for an interview, she however refused to discuss any individual case. She denied the allegations of any staged encounter deaths. She further said, “The complaint against the police has been referred to the executive magistrate for inquiry. Wherever the inquiry brings out faults of police, prosecution action will be taken (against those officers).”
Meanwhile, a signature campaign has been launched by the Committee Against Fake Encounters in Chennai. “Already 50,000 signatures have been collected, we will collect total one lakh signatures for the campaign,” said A. Marx, president of the committee.
In 2009, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) had found that the killing of Suresh alias Sura of Vyasarpadi was a fake encounter by the police. It took almost seven years for NHRC to find the truth and order the State government to pay a relief of Rs. 3 lakh to the family of the victim.
We don’t want money but we want to know the truth, how Pandi was killed?” said Dindigul Pandi’s nephew, Elangovan. Natarajan’s mother, Bhamavati said it in tears, “If my son had done anything wrong, put him in jail.” She didn’t ask to kill those who killed her son. “Find the murderers of my son and put them in jail,” she pleaded as she keeps faith in the judicial system. If the police of the State do not believe in the judicial system, they can learn from this mother who is bereaved of her son killed extra judicially.
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