I think you are misunderstanding my position. I am saying this is a grey and grey issue and I agree with what you have written to a large extend. Blind support to the AP police in this case is very bad in the long run. I will break it down for you.
See, this is something which is very important. The people who got killed should have been instead used to open up the nexus instead just being shot and killed. Also, the people killed were just foot soldiers/pawns of the smuggling mafia. Tell me how does killing them outright going to control smuggling?
In fact This is what is happening , During the last Six months A lot of Big wig smugglers have been arrested put behind bars and are awaiting trail.
I understand the police shooting if it was indeed a case of self defence. But I doubt this is a case of self defence really. Killing even a single person in the smugglers would have stopped them from retaliating back and would have led to their capture. They would have been far more usefull as assets to bring down the smuggling cartel.
That is what I am trying to establish , As per police accounts there were roughly hundred of these loggers pelting stones at them , the police might have felt they were in imminent danger. the STG has authorization to carry automatic weapons , once they start firing in all the adrenaline rush they would not know how many they were killing .
You are mistaking me for someone who is a HRA and who gives a damn about these smugglers. I dont . The problem here is not that they are killed, but they are killed extrajudically. Again, if the killers of the police/forest rangers got killed in this encounter, then ok. I have no problem, but I have a hard time accepting that all of these killed in the encounters were involved in killing the police officials and forest officials.
Lets agree to disagree on this point , you feel these are extra judicial killings and I feel that the killings are justified .
And regarding Veerappan - see this is what I was talking about. Do you know that even Veerappan encounter was claimed to be a fake? Veerappan also had nexus with politicians. With his death , any chance of bringing the nexus out in the open died. If we had not encouraged it at the time, we would not have had this encounter now and would have had the chance to bring the smuggling cartel into the open now. Do you honestly think killing a few foot soldiers is going to stop the smuggling cartel?
No killing a few foot soldiers will not stop the smuggling cartel , but it will send a strong message to others regarding what is waiting for them if they enter and try to cut Red Sandal wood.
I highly doubt it. The autopsy report is very contradictory to the police report. You know whats worse? You cant even trust the autopsy reports in such cases as even they are vulnerable to falsification due to political pressures. I myself know several such cases , having worked in the forensic department for a few months in my training.
accepted since you are the expert on this.
As a civilised society, we should be looking for improving the judicial process and police. Fast track the process. That is the best way to go in the long run. Ad hoc measures like these extra judicial killings will create more problems than they solve. But then again , justice delayed is justice denied. So this whole issue is a very grey and grey issue. While you may not want to hound the AP police for their encounter, you dont want to encourage it either