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Teachers and students
from Jamia Millia Islamia were joined by civil rights activists and
colleagues from other universities in a demonstration at the Police
Headquarters at ITO today. They were protesting the Delhi Police’s
persistent stonewalling of any enquiry into the Batla House ‘encounter’.
The protestors expressed their outrage at the affidavit filed by the
Delhi Police before the High Court last week. The protestors charged
that the affidavit is virtually a charter for a license to kill for the
Police, which mocks at the very idea that the security agencies should
operate within the ambit of law and be sensitive to human rights
concerns.
The Delhi Police, in
order to evade probe, is making grossly malicious comparisons between
the Batla House ‘encounter’ and the tragic violence in Bombay in
November. The events of 19th September, and the police claims, are mired
in suspicion and inconsistencies. Moreover, the Delhi Police’s
pathological aversion to any independent scrutiny of its actions points
the needle of suspicion even more strongly towards it. In its attempt to
subvert any enquiry into the incident, the Delhi Police has sought to
undermine and contravene all institutions of democracy. |
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In
its affidavit, the Delhi Police has made utterly demeaning references to
the guidelines laid down by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)
which require that a magisterial enquiry be invariably held in all cases
of death that occur in the course of police action. By pleading that
fear of enquiries will impede in the execution of police duties, the
Delhi Police is only arguing that it be rendered above all law and
accountability. The demonstrators also took issue with the Delhi
Police’s claim that an enquiry into the Batla House ‘encounter’ would
demoralise the police force and prevent it from taking “quick action
against a terrorist or a hardcore criminal”. It is precisely against
such summary execution and dispensation of ‘justice’—euphemistically
referred to as encounters—that NHRC guidelines have been evolved. The
protesting group also asked why the police forces’ morale could be
bolstered by impunity to kill alone. |
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