Encounters: By fair means and foul

When news of the encounter in which four men accused of rape were killed by Cyberabad police broke last week, scriptwriters of popular cinema must have been livid. In practically every Indian film industry, the police encounter is a plot device of almost iconic proportions. The public has grown up seeing filmy cops pull off the most ridiculous encounters. Often, police dramas have been savaged by critics and connoisseurs who have lambasted scriptwriters and directors for loopholes and lapses in logic.

Yet after all that, when Cyberabad commissioner of police VC Sajjanar told the press how the four rape accused were taken to the scene of the crime at 5.45am “to recover material objects” and ended up shot dead, the public enthusiastically suspended disbelief and lapped up the official version. “The law has done its duty,” said Sajjanar. (Admit it: You can imagine Akshay Kumar saying this in a movie adaptation).

None of the questions that scriptwriters would have been asked if this was a film sequence – Why did the police need the accused to recover the objects? Why were the accused not restrained or handcuffed? Why didn’t the police shoot to injure? Why do only the accused have bullet wounds? – were raised. Instead, people showered Cyberabad police with rose petals. Literally.

All this is particularly baffling because the same Cyberabad police was being savaged just days ago when it emerged that they’d delayed the investigation into the rape and murder of the veterinary surgeon. Instead of taking the victim’s sister’s concerns seriously, the police was more interested in the victim’s “affairs”. Four dead men, and all this was forgiven and forgotten.

Part of this enthusiasm for extra-judicial killings comes from frustration at how long the legal process takes. Who can forget that Bhanwari Devi, thanks to whom we have a law against sexual harassment in the workplace, is still awaiting a final verdict after having been gang-raped in 1992 and filing a case in 1995? Meanwhile, one of the accused has died of old age. Compared to that, doesn’t an encounter killing within days of the crime being committed feel more fair?

The problem with encounter killings like this one is that while it may offer closure to some survivors, it leaves society more vulnerable. The police are supposed to enforce the law, not be above it. If they get that immunity, then we’re all in danger of being victims of the whimsy of an overworked, underpaid police force.

Cyberabad police’s newfound fans will tell you that with the four accused gunned down, every abuser will think twice before committing violent crimes against women. Yet somehow, I find it hard to imagine former member of Bharatiya Janata Party Kuldeep Sengar, who has been accused of raping a Dalit girl, is quaking in his jail cell now. And what of rape accused Shivam Trivedi and his four associates, who beat, stabbed and set their 23-year-old victim on fire days after getting bail? How likely is that five men, who thought nothing of cornering someone they’d allegedly raped in the middle of a street and turning her from a living woman to human fireball, are afraid of what the police might do to them?

When those in power turn to vigilantism, it’s not a disruption. It’s just dangerous because whether it’s the privilege of being male and upper caste or the protective cloak of political power, the social muscle gives these perpetrators the confidence to carry out their heinous actions is bulletproof.

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