Allahabad High Court slams UP Police over practice of shooting accused in the leg, seeks explanation

The Allahabad High Court has taken a stern view of the growing practice of Uttar Pradesh police shooting the accused in their legs and later claiming it as encounters [Raju Alias Rajkumar v State of UP].By way of an order passed on January 28, Justice Arun Kumar Singh Deshwal ordered the Director General of Police (DGP) as well as State’s Additional Chief Secretary (Home) to appear before it through video conference on Friday, January 30.The DGP and the Home Secretary have been asked to inform the Court whether any oral or written directions have been issued to police officers to shoot accused persons in the legs or otherwise by claiming it to be a police encounter.In the order dated January 28, the Court observed that the practice of police encounters, particularly firing at the legs of accused persons, has seemingly become a routine feature. This is ostensibly done to please superior officers or to teach the accused a so-called lesson by way of punishment, the bench remarked.“Such conduct is wholly impermissible, as the power to punish lies exclusively within the domain of the Courts and not with the police. India being a democratic State governed by the rule of law, the functions of the Executive, the Legislature, and the Judiciary are distinct and well defined, and any encroachment by the police into the judicial domain cannot be countenanced,” the Court added..The Court further observed that certain police officers may be misusing their authority to attract the attention of higher officers or to create an impression of public sympathy by portraying incidents as police encounters.“This Court is frequently confronted with cases where, even in matters involving petty offences such as theft, the police indiscriminately resort to firing by projecting the incident as a police encounter,” the judge said..The observations were made by the Court while dealing with bail petitions of three accused, who had sustained injuries in different police encounters. No police officer has sustained any injury which further calls into question the necessity and proportionality of the use of firearms in the alleged encounters, the Court noted..In one of the bail petitions, the Court had earlier directed the State to answer whether any FIR has been registered in respect of the police encounter and whether the statement of the injured has been recorded before a Magistrate or any Medical Officer.In response, the State said that an FIR was registered in the matter but the statement of the injured was neither recorded before the magistrate nor by any medical officer. It was also submitted that a Sub-Inspector was earlier appointed as the Investigating Officer but now an Inspector has been assigned the job..Taking note of the submissions, the Court opined that Supreme Court’s guidelines on encounters had not been complied with in the case. “It is evident that in the present case, although the applicant sustained grievous injuries in a police encounter, the directions issued by the Hon'ble Apex Court in People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and another (supra), as further affirmed in the case of Andhra Pradesh Police Officers Association vs Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee (APCLC) reported in (2022) 16 SCC 514, have not been complied with. The police have neither recorded the statement of the injured before a Medical Officer or a Magistrate, nor has the investigation of the police encounter been conducted by an officer of a rank higher than the head of the police party involved in the encounter,” the bench said..It, thus, directed the DGP and home secretary to answer whether any instructions have been issued to ensure compliance with the directions of the Supreme Court in People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) regarding registration of FIR, recording of statements of injured persons, and investigation by officers senior in rank to the head of the police party in cases resulting in death or grievous injury during police encounters..[Read Order]