Mumbai, June 21: Is the Mumbai police beginning to show signs of change? From over 100 encounters a year to only a couple seems like a sea change for trigger-happy encounter specialists.
While some of them have passed away, others are being haunted by the dead in lonely hours and have taken to alcohol. You’ll find them in run-down bars drinking cheap liquor or away from the city in a bid to forget the past.
“I can’t remain alone for too long. The dead gangsters haunt me. I’m forced to ask myself, ‘Who did I do all the dirty work for?'” asks one encounter specialist. “We are used and discarded like condoms by our seniors. We outlived our utility once the underworld was wiped out. Now, the authorities don’t know what to do with us.
One of them is on the other side of the law,” said another.
Political reasons keep cops out
Strangely, some of the encounter specialists have been kept out of the department for political reasons or out of professional rivalry. Take the case of Praful Bhosle, Hemant Desai and Ashok Khot. They are not being reinstated despite being cleared by the court. Another glaring case in point is Daya Nayak. It’s almost six months since Nayak was absolved by the Anti Corruption Bureau of charges levelled against him. A few others have been left out in the cold without an explanation. Nobody wants to sign the documents to bring the officers back into the force. In fact, some of the officers who utilised their expertise to the hilt are now at the helm of affairs, police sources pointed out.
“We are frustrated when we see erstwhile seniors distance themselves from us, as if we are untouchables,” said a suspended officer. Some police officers still pay old-time informers in the hope of getting tip-offs when
they return.
In the old days, encounters were straight out of Hollywood westerns where high profile cops simply had to pull out their guns and fire. But all of them were carried out at the behest of senior officers. After almost seven years of shootouts, usually followed by encounters, on the streets of Mumbai, the violent scenes did a vanishing act.
Underworld extracts revenge
More than 600 gangsters were killed between 1996 and 2001. The spate of encounters broke the backbone of the underworld. By 2002, not many denizens of the underworld were left in the city. The 50-odd encounter specialists had outlived their utility. While most senior IPS officers were transferred, others did not want to get dragged into controversy.
Soon the underworld planned to exact revenge on the encounter specialists. Many were framed and dragged into court cases. In recent years, statistics point to a steady rise in the crime graph.
The AK-47 issued to Vijay Salaskar was taken back after the Gawli gang was single-handedly wiped out in 2004. Salaskar died in a terrorist attack.
Encounter specialists YL Jadhav, Ananad Kingale, DP Patil, Ravindra Angre and Prakash Bhandari were shunted out of the CBI after gangsters were wiped off the streets of Mumbai.
Nothing to say in defence
Daya Nayak, Hemant Desai and Praful Bhonsale refused to comment on the issue. Ramesh Bagwe, Minister of State, Home, said, “The police officers have to submit documents to the home ministry stating they have been cleared of the charges against them, along with an application that they want to return to the force.” Director general of police D Sivanandan refused to comment while ex police commissioner MN Singh said, “I don’t want to comment since I’m not aware of the current status of the cases against encounter specialists.”
-Agencies