`Salem men were not killed in fake encounters'

mumbai: the police on thursday denied that four alleged gangsters, who were planning to kill actor aamir khan and three others, were eliminated by them in fake encounters. samajwadi party (sp) spokesperson majeed memon had accused the police of staging fake encounters. a police officer said, ``the crime branch team had advance information about the abu salem gang targeting aamir khan, director ashutosh gowariker, film financier jhamu sugandh and a builder.it was a genuine encounter in which our men spotted the four salem boys on two motorcycles. they had two pistols and two revolvers from which they fired several rounds at the police team. the police opened fire in self defence.'' ``in fact, the encounter took place outside mr gowarikar's house on 32nd road in khar,'' the officer stated. ``we found a photograph of gowariker in the pocket of one of the deceased gangsters. we also found personal diaries containing numbers of abu salem and his gang members. one of the accused, sanjay singh, has been working for salem for several years. his accomplice abdul khan alias bablu is related to a top henchman of salem and married to a gangster's wife. the other two were in their company.'' the officer stated that the doctors, during the post mortem, did not find any injury marks other than those caused by bullets. ``the sp accuses us of torturing the boys before the encounter. it is a baseless charge,'' he stated. ``as far as the film personalities were concerned, we had cautioned them and provided them with security two days before the encounter killing,'' the officer added. activists of the sp staged a dharna at azad maidan on thursday to protest the encounter killing. mr memon held a press conference at which the mother of one of those killed in the encounter and the father of another claimed that their children were ``totally innocent and had no previous criminal record.'' javed khan, father of khan jaleel, a 23-year-old youth who was killed in the encounter, said his family was worried last friday night when the son did not return home. two days later, a policeman told a neighbour that the youth had been killed in the encounter and the body should be collected from the morgue. mr memon said, ``we asked the relatives to take photographs of the bodies which showed that these bore marks of torture, not only of bullet wounds. aamir khan was away in the u.s. how could there be an attempt to murder him?'' mr memon raised a number of issues pertaining to civil liberties and legal provisions in the case. how was it that in every encounter, the victims die before admission to hospital and there is no possibility of recording their statements, he asked. ``we protest against the killing of members of the minority community,'' mr memon said. he said the sp was considering a move to withdraw support to the democratic front government in maharashtra because of its failure on several counts.