Police often accused of fake encounters. Most of the time, after an encounter, the police presents the same script. Here is a sample of police story of any encounter:
“The miscreants were planning to commit the crime. In the meantime, we received secret information. We raided the spot, challenged the criminals. One was killed, while his two accomplices succeeded in fleeing owing to darkness."
The only change in above script is date, time and place, of course, the name too. It has been observed that in majority of such police encounters only petty criminals are killed. The amount of award carried on their head ranges between Rs. 1000 to Rs. 2500. But, it doesn’t happen every time.
This time, Uttar Pradesh police faced a real encounter in Chitrakoot. The operation was against a notorious dacoit named Ghanshyam carrying an award of Rs. 50K, which indicates how dangerous was the criminal. The police had deployed about 500 jawans in the area. But a lone dacoit compelled the police to continue the operation for more than 50 hours. During this period four policemen including a Company Commander were killed. Several policemen including an Inspector General and a DIG were injured.
The TOI reports : When asked why the police was taking so much time in winding up the operation, Singh said: "Such encounters cannot be tailor made. We have all type of weapons that can be used in such situations. But we are conducting the operation in such a way that no harm could be made to villagers, their property and livestock."
All’s well if end’s well. The dacoit was ultimately gunned down. The best thing of this episode, no civilian hurt.
By Mriegank Shekhar
