Amnesty International Demands Independent Probe on Telangana 'Encounters'

HYDERABAD: Amnesty International, India has demanded Telangana government to conduct an "independent criminal investigation into the killing of five undertrials" on April 7. The human rights organisation in its statement issued on Thursday said that according to guidelines issued by the National Human Rights Commission in 2010, alleged 'fake encounters' must be investigated by an independent agency.
In September 2014, the Supreme Court stated in the People's Union for Civil Liberties versus state of Maharashtra case that killings in police encounters require independent investigations, the statement read.
It its statement the organisation informed the state government that "authorities in Telangana need to urgently conduct an independent criminal investigation into the case to determine if it (the incident) involved extrajudicial executions disguised as 'encounter' killings." The statement quoted Amnesty International India's Senior Campaigner, V P Abhirr as saying, "Impunity for extrajudicial executions is a serious issue in India."
The statement also quoted the UN principles on the effective prevention and investigation of extra-legal, arbitrary and summary executions which requires a "thorough, prompt and impartial investigation of all suspected cases of extra-legal, arbitrary and summary executions, including cases where...reliable reports suggest unnatural death in the above circumstances."
The statement observed that while the Telangana police say the five undertrials - Viqaruddin, Amjad Ali, Mohammed Hanif, Zakir Ali and Izhar Khan - who were being taken in a van by 17 policemen from the Warangal central prison to a court in Hyderabad - attempted to overpower the policemen and snatch their assault rifles, video footage from the spot "appears to show the five under trials inside the police van after they were killed and all five appear to be handcuffed." The five undertrials had been arrested on suspicion of killing two police officials and a state paramilitary official in different incidents between 2007 and 2010, and other offences, the statement explained.