Happy Hour for Mumbai’s Encounter Specialists

After years of bad news, they are getting reinstatements  and court reprieves.

In the late 1990s, they competed for headlines which blared the numbers they had killed. However, for a long time now, Mumbai’s dozen-odd encounter specialists have had nothing but bad news. One after the other, they have found themselves suspended or making the rounds of courts and jails, on charges varying from extortion to murder. But over the last one month, the tide has changed. 

Two of the encounter specialists, Praful Bhosale and Hemant Desai, who were suspended since 2002 for the custodial death of Khwaja Yunus, were reinstated to the force recently. 

Last week, Daya Nayak, who was the poster boy among encounter specialists, with even movies based on him, found unexpected relief from the Supreme Court. The latter directed the Maharashtra government to stop MCOCA proceedings against him. MCOCA, or Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, is a stringent law and would have resulted in Nayak being put behind bars.

Many, including Pradeep Sharma, who has the highest number of killings against his name, are still behind bars or suspended, but police sources say they too will see happier times as the charges against them have been “diluted”.  

A senior police officer, who has headed numerous encounter operations, thinks these men can be useful. “The force needs good shooters. Take these men back, but keep a watch on their activities,” says the officer.

Human rights organisations are clear that encounters are nothing but murders, and the men behind them should be tried in court. Former police commissioner Julio Ribeiro had earlier stated that the specialists had turned into “rascals in uniform” who undertook contract killings for underworld gangs.

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