What Adityanath's UP is Hiding With Its Dramatic Fake Encounter Strategy

Yesterday, a journalist was shot at on the road by a group of men in Ghaziabad. He was shot in front of his daughters who cried for help. The incident got captured on a CCTV camera, reached the internet and created a huge uproar. You can check out the video here on Rediff iShare. The journalist later died. 

More details about the incident have come out today in the media. The journalist has been identified as Vikram Joshi,. There have been huge uproar in the state due to increased crime against Brahmins and allegations have been made that CM Adityanath and his government are neglecting Brahmin community purposefully. But I will leave this angle here, because perhaps not many people are comfortable acknowledging this. Moving on, it has come out that the journalist's niece was being harassed by some men; he protested and the family had made a police complaint in this matter 4 days before. But the police did not do anything and the journalist was shot dead by the criminals to teach him and his family a lesson. This incident shows status of a complete lawlessness in the state of Uttar Pradesh. 

Let us go back in time a little. Kanpur's local politician and strongman Vikas Dubey was targeted by UP Police and later killed after he had surrendered. Many people protested against his suspected cold blooded murder by the police; saying that he needed to face proper trial. But many  said that such fake encounters are a good measure by CM Adityanath in order to scare away the criminals and stop them from doing crimes. But the news, data and statistics tell something else. 

After Vikas Dubey case, I searched the internet with key word "UP Police" to read more news related to them. And I found many cases where the police was at lapse. For example, in Kanpur, a man was abducted and ransom was asked. The police asked the family to pay ransom and they would arrest the person who comes to collect it. The family sold its property, collected Rs 30 lakhs, kept it at the place where abductors had asked them to, and waited. A man came and took away the money. And police did nothing! You can read about it here. There are many other cases. For example: 

1. Gangster Badan Singh Baddo served UP Police personnel with high-end liquor and then escaped. He has 30 cases of murder, loot etc [TOI]
2. UP Police officer Bhishm Pal Singh was suspended for inappropriate behavior in front of woman complainant [NIE]
3. UP Police has been served with notice by NCW for incident where a Bus conductor pushed a girl out from moving bus after finding that she was Covid19 +Ve. The girl died on the spot [ZTV]

I also started noticing who were the criminals being shot in probable fake encounters and who were simply being arrested. For example:

1. In Rampur, UP, gangster Saleem was "arrested" after encounter [TOI]
2. In Buland Shahar, UP, two criminals Shahnawaz and Vinod were "arrested" after encounter [BI]
3. In Muzaffarnagar, two criminals Sukraam Pal and Susheel Mooch were "arrested" after encounter [TOI]
4. In Islampur, Fahim, a man missing after attacking a policeman in 2015, was "arrested" after encounter [N18]
5. In Muzaffarnagar, a criminal named Anil was "arrested" after encounter [Statsman]

Note that all above were criminals but were merely "arrested" even after "encounter". I.e. they were not killed. 

After going through a lot of incidents and seeing the patter, I noticed that most of the criminals or strongmen who were being killed in probable fake encounters had some connection with non-BJP political parties. For example, even Vikas Dubey was associated with the BSP. And many criminals with equal criminal history were simply being arrested; perhaps because they did not have any political connections and hence government did not have any "political motive" to eliminate them. 

I also read about an eye-opener article on Rediff. Dr Surya Pratap Singh, a retired IAS officer, wrote, "If the criminal belongs to a particular caste or if he belongs to a particular party, then he is no more a criminal." Then things started falling in place. 

It seems CM Adityanath has made "Fake encounters" a calculated "strategy" in order to send a "right kind of message" in the people through media. Media loves to cover encounters and gangsters being shot dead are surely to catch limelight. The media also keeps running such news stories over many days and weeks, capturing news from various reactions of parties involved. And over the time if people keep hearing about such encounters, they would certainly start believing that UP Police is doing very good in controlling crime. But alas, the reality would be something else!

After reading many news items, the lapses on the part of the police was evident. Even in Vikas Dubey case, we all know that many in the police were his "informers". But no one wants to talk about it, since it shows bad image of the Police. Thankfully, Supreme Court is now rapping the state government for the various lapses done on their part while dealing with Vikas Dubey. 

All said, it seems that the series of probable fake encounters is a strategy tailored for media used by state government to convince people that law and order situation is improving in the state. But on the ground level, perhaps there is no improvement or only a small improvement. Also, the political murders show the state government in worse light. 

We hope that the government and the police would employ more holistic approach in dealing with crime and would be able to "prevent" crime rather than running at and killing every accused in cold blood attempting to prove system's efficiency. Dramatic fake encounters may be good for TV News and Internet discussions, but common people like Vikram Joshi and others are still suffering like before. And that needs improvement.