Extra Judicial killing in India

Extra Judicial killing in India

(By Pashmeen Kaur ) 

Image By:- Goutham Sagar


Introduction 

Extra-judicial punishment is unlawful as they break the process of legal jurisdiction. Extra-judicial killing targets popular politicians, leading leaders of the country, religious figures, trade unions & other popular faces. This is mostly practiced by the state government or the police or any other armed forces. The government uses the term called “crossfire” to explain the process of judicial killing. This refers to a gunfight between the group of criminals and the police. The term “death in an encounter” is used in another country which means the same as ‘crossfire’. The word ‘crossfire’ is popularly used in Bangladesh. This connotation refers to the utter powerlessness of the people that face extrajudicial killing.

Though there is no particular definition given for extrajudicial killing still It is killing by the officials without following the legal rules and due judicial processes. To take anyone’s life is violation of the Right to life until and unless it is approved through legal process & person is convicted under section 302, 303, 121, 376A etcetera of IPC. Though it is an easy way to reach the criminals or the terrorist and kill them without any sentence announced in the court but it leads to lawlessness and offers state terrorism. 

In Bangladesh, Since the formation of the RAB there is a growth in the number of killing under the column of extrajudicial killing. RAB is the operation that exists since June 2004 by amending the Armed police Battalions ordinance of 1979 enacting new laws. It tackles the extreme situation that takes place in the country. The government gives the authority to these people that they can deal with the increasing rate of crimes and criminals in our country. It has the authority to investigate any criminal offence taking place in the country and its main focus is to remove the top criminals. 

The police have been killing many criminals in our country without getting the verdict from the courtrooms in the name of encounter or crossfire. There may be the possibility that some of the people that the government official kills are innocent. For example, a policeman misbehaving with a woman and some random guy tries to protect the women but the guy is shot dead. Is that what we call justice in India?

Even killing of a person who is creating harm to another human in a grievous manner is acceptable under judicial scrutiny only (execution) but the of any innocent is not acceptable at all. 

The Bangladeshi state minister of home ministry Lutfozzaman Babar commented that “criminals are not human beings. They are just criminals who have committed a crime and deserved to be killed on the first anniversary of RAB.”


Should the concept of judicial killing exist in the democratic state?

The answer to this question is NO. There should be at least some provision made for the same as some officials do take an advantage of their position. It is a violation in the democracy. As the democracy is based on giving rights to the human being and provide them with justice. There should be laws that should be formulated if the power is handed to the officials because many officials are killing innocent human beings in our country. 

In Bangladesh, Even though people are happy with the execution of the RAB but it just not justifies the type of killing through humanitarian behavior and legal point of view. Every person should have the right to be heard in the court of law as it is unfair by the officials to kill the innocent people in the name of “crossfire”.  Hence, if the official finds out a grievous act taking place, they should not right away kill the person because of the power they hold.


CONCLUSION 

Even though our country has granted us the right to be heard and on the other hand it has given the phenomenon of “crossfire” through which many officials uses the term to kill innocent people. Today, we are having a special force that has enormous powers to kill the ‘criminals’ but not only they are killing they are just randomly picking anyone and putting them behind the bar. It has been also observed that people who are being killed in custody are being killed in the name of using the term “crossfire”. This, in my opinion, police or state in a democracy does not hold right of killing people without judicial review even though they have committed any huge crime and the authority that is being granted to the police and the forces should be made limited by introducing some provision. Anything in excessive is bad so is the power that is being given.





Disclaimer:-

The opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Light de Literacy and LDL does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.


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