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Guernica 37 Centre, an American law firm, has filed a formal submission with the United States government seeking targeted sanctions against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, for his alleged role in extra judicial killings allegedly committed by the state’s police forces between 2017 and 2021, reported The Wire.
The Guernica 37 Centre is a part of the Guernica 37 Group, based in the United States. It is a specialist group of international criminal and human rights lawyers who work with survivors, victims’ families and their communities to secure accountability for violations they have experienced. It has recently been involved in submissions to the US and the UK governments, seeking sanctions against Bangladesh government and law enforcement officials, for their role in extra – judicial killings.
The submission related to extra-judicial killings in UP was filed on February 9, 2022, with the Department of State and the US Department of the Treasury. It also recommends sanctions against Om Prakash Singh, the recently retired Director-General of the Police of UP, and Sanjeev Tyagi, Superintendent of the Police of the district of Kanpur. International lawyer Toby Cadman, an Associate Council at Guernica 37 centre, told The Wire, “The submission presents credible sources to show that the UP police carried out at least 146 extra-judicial killings in a pattern of so-called “encounters” since Yogi Adityanath came into power in 2017.”
These encounters are staged confrontations between the police and alleged criminals, which is claimed as an act of self-defence by the police officers. In many of the cases in which the police officers act in their so-called ‘self-defence’, witness testimonies, autopsy reports, and other evidence demonstrates that the victims were in fact executed.
Meenakshi Ganguly, the South Asia director of Human Rights Watch told The Wire, “Indian authorities have failed to act properly against custodial torture, deaths and extrajudicial killings, creating culture of impunity. Lack of effective domestic accountability mechanisms serves as a reason for foreign governments to consider targeted sanctions.”
UN Human Rights actions
United Nations human rights experts, had in January 2019,expressed alarm about allegations of at least 59 extrajudicial killings by police in Uttar Pradesh since March 2017. They sent detailed information through a letter, to the Indian Government on 15 of the cases. Evidence indicates the killings took place in police custody. In all of the cases, the police said the killings were during encounters and in self-defense.In the letter, the UN experts also highlighted their concern over statements issued by high-ranking state government and police officials seeming to incite, justify or sanction killings.
UN Human Rights experts through its letter also expressed concerns that the Supreme Court’s guidelines on investigations were not followed. They expressed serious concerns about reports that family members of victims and human rights defenders working on the cases have been harassed, subjected to death threats from police and had false criminal cases brought against them in apparent attempts to intimidate them. They called for an urgent review of the use of force by Uttar Pradesh police to ensure all law enforcement operations were conducted in compliance with international standards, for prompt, independent, and thorough investigations into all allegations of potentially unlawful killings and for perpetrators to be prosecuted.
A few months after coming to power, Adityanath had said in a TV interview that his police would not hesitate to ‘knock down’ the criminals if they did not mend their ways. The state government has also repeatedly advertised these shootings as an achievement as part of a ‘zero tolerance policy’ of the state government towards crime and for maintenance of law and order.
More recently, in November 2021, the report of a committee led by a former judge of the Supreme Court criticised the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and other oversight bodies for their investigation into 17 alleged “encounter” killings that had taken place four years earlier. “Wanton killings through such unconstitutional activity are unfortunately being given a veneer of respectability through the expression ‘instant justice,’ even though in most cases it is nothing but cold-blooded murder,” Justice Madan B. Lokur wrote in the report.
Guernica 37 submissions
The Guernica submission concerning extra judicial killings in Uttar Pradesh states that Yogi Adityanath, despite being the Chief Minister and Home Minister of Uttar Pradesh and thus having the final executive authority over the police, failed to prevent police officers under his command from committing serious human rights violations, nor did he take any measures to investigate or prosecute the perpetrators. In fact, Yogi Adityanath was found condoning such behaviour and rewarding police officers for their transgressions.
The Submission further states that Om Prakash Singh (Director General of the Police in Uttar Pradesh from January 2018 to January 31, 2020) and Sanjeev Tyagi (Superintendent of the Police, Kanpur district since March 2021 and prior to that Superintendent of the Police in Bijnor District from January 2019 onwards), hadfailed to take action against the serious human rights abuses committed by the forces under their command.
NCRB data
As mentioned earlier, international lawyer Toby Cadman told The Wire that the submission presents credible sources to show that the UP police carried out at least 146 extra- judicial killings since Yogi Adityanath came into power in 2017.
In the data provided below by the NCRB shows a very drastic difference in the number of custodial killings. The discrepancy of the national body in providing data can be clearly seen from their information. This indicates how instances of extra judicial killings are heavily under reported giving us a bleak picture of the ground realities and how such under reporting is a means of keeping the masses in the dark about incidents of ‘encounters’ and extra judicial killings by the police.
NCRB REPORT ON DEATH IN CUSTODIAL VIOLENCE AND EXTRA JUDICIAL KILLINGS
Sr. No. | States/ Union Territories | Number of custodial deaths | |||
2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | ||
| Uttar Pradesh | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
The data by NCRB can be seen here:
https://ncrb.gov.in/en/crime-in-india-table-addtional-table-and-chapter-contents?
Prominent Encounters in Uttar Pradesh
The custodial death of a 22-year-old Altaf, in Uttar Pradesh’s Kasganj after he was detained in the case of a minor girl from a Hindu family gone missing. Following the incident, five policemen were suspended from the Kotwali Police Station in Kasganj. They had claimed that Altaf had hangedhimself with a drawstring from the hood of his jacket, using a water pipe in a toilet that is just a couple of feet from the ground.
In June last year, both P. Jeyaraj (58) and his son Bennix (38), were arrested for allegedly violating Covid-19 lockdown rules by keeping their store open past the allowed hours in Tamil Nadu.Two days later, they died due to alleged police brutality. The growing outrage across the country over their deaths put a massive spotlight on custodial deaths, reviving demands for police accountability.
In September, the Allahabad High Court transferred the probe of the custodial death of a 24-year-old man Krishna Yadav in Jaunpur to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). A Special Operations Group team of the police and the Station House Officer (SHO) of Baksa had in February gone to Yadav’s house and allegedly taken him away to the police station for detention in relation to a loot case. While the family accused the police of murder, the police said that Yadav was apprehended while he was driving a motorcycle and fell, receiving injuries. He was sent to hospital for treatment but was declared dead. The CBI lodged a case under murder and robbery against the police. While transferring the case to the CBI, the High Court had said that the investigation so far had shown that the “entire effort of the police is to somehow give clean chit to the accused and for this purpose important evidence are being left and some evidences are created and manipulated.”
In June, three police personnel, including an SHO, were suspended and booked for murder. Rajesh Kori (35) had allegedly eloped with a minor girl living in his neighbourhood but they were soon found and brought to the Kudwar Police Station, where Kori, a resident of Jagdishpur village, died in the station premises under “suspicious circumstances”.
Shahbuddin, Ziyauddin’s brother, alleged that on March 24 the latter left home to go to a relative’s place but, on the way, members of a police team picked him up and tortured him, causing his death. Ziyauddin was “beaten to death,” alleged Shahbuddin in his police complaint, accusing the police team of murder. Police had said that during questioning, Ziyauddin complained of feeling unwell and was admitted to the district hospital where he died.
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