Have police encounters been legitimised across India?

RASHME SEHGAL :

Encounter killings are not new to Bengal or Bihar but under the BJP government, there is an unabashed endorsement of this model 

West Bengal and Bihar are witnessing a surge of extra judicial killings and half encounters UP police style. Encounter killings are not new to Bengal or Bihar but the concern is that under the BJP government, there is an unabashed endorsement of this encounter model. 

On October 26, in Gaighata, North 24- Parganas, Prahlad Das was arrested for allegedly raping and murdering a 17-year old girl. He was shot dead by the police a few hours later with the cops claiming that when he was taken to the crime scene, he snatched a service revolver and fired at the police who were forced to shoot him dead in self-defence.

This is the second such incident in the state in three months. In July, an accused in the rape and murder of a 11-year-old girl at Baruipur in South 24 Parganas district was shot dead by police. This accused also allegedly had tried to snatch an officer’s gun and had fired at the cops who were forced to fire back in self- defence.

In Bihar, on September 19, a video clip of masked men molesting a Class X student in Jamui, Bihar, went viral across the country. Bihar’s chief minister Samrat Choudhary’s claims that the law and order situation having improved under his tenure were torn to shreds. Three days later, the Bihar police paraded the alleged main accused, Nandan Yadav, limping after being shot in the leg. The police came up with the usual excuse. They had been forced to indulge in retaliatory fired after he had snatched their service revolvers and shot at them.

This hardening security posture in Bihar under Choudhary, akin to the encounter-heavy policing model being followed in Uttar Pradesh, has come in for criticism by parties like the RJD led by Tejashwi Yadav. Yadav has accused the state government of selective targeting and caste-based profiling in some police actions.

Madhya Pradesh seems to be no different. In early September 2026, the three kingpins of this tragedy that resulted in the death of over 40 people were all shot in the leg by the police in three separate incidents.  Police combing the Gwalior-Chambal region, once famous for its dacoits, has now gained notoriety for its half encounters which are so numerous that the MP police does not bother to even record them.

Of course, no state can beat the record of UP which from 2017 has averaged five encounters a day, and one encounter killing every 12 days ever since Yogi Adityanath came to power in 2017. Earlier, most encounters had resulted in the death of the alleged criminals. When the NHRC and several international bodies raised a hue and cry over these killings, the police switched over to half-encounters.

Yogi Adityanath likes to boast that the law-and-order situation has improved under him. `If a criminal has the freedom to open fire, then the police also have guns to confront them. They are trained precisely for such situations. To make the offender understand in a language he knows,’ Adityanath has claimed. 

The problem is all this bravado does not hide the spiralling figures of crime in the state. Since March 2017, when the BJP government led by Yogi Adityanath came to power, the UP Police have shot and injured at least 11,834 alleged criminals in 17,043 encounters. The police have no records of how many of these young men belonging primarily to the minority or Dalit communities have been left permanently disabled.

In October 2024, Times of India reported that in Gautam Buddh Nagar in Noida alone, there was one encounter taking place every three days over the past two years. In Noida and Greater Noida, 49 alleged criminals were killed and 416 injured in 327 encounters. 

Four thousand half encounters have taken place in UP, 50 in Bihar and 15 in Madhya Pradesh in 2025 and in the first six months of 2026. The most shameful aspect of these half encounters is how they are taken to hospital, bandaged and then paraded before the media. Amitabh Thakur, an IPS officer who took voluntary retirement, believes that police superintendents are often questioning during review meetings of how many encounters  have been staged in their district and how many criminals killed. If any SP shows a lack of killings, questions are raised about his efficiency. Most SPs prefer to take the easy way out and ask their subordinates to stage some encounters before the next review meeting. Encounter specialists are known to be busy killing petty criminals in order to claim rewards and out-of-turn promotions.

Other IPS officers are equally critical. IG Police UP cadre S.R. Darapuri(retd) claims police encounters were rare when he was in service. Now he says, ` extrajudicial killings have become part of the state’s unstated policy.’ He believes a government resorts to encounter killings only when it fails to ensure law and order by legitimate means. 

The Assam police has faced widespread allegations and legal scrutiny over a series of police encounters and half encounters. This wave of police shootings has surged significantly ever since chief minister Himanta Biswas took office in May 2021. Sarma, like Adityanath, has condone this shooting says the police should go ahead and shoot alleged criminals who more often than not  try to snatch service pistols or escape from custody forcing cops to open fire. The Telangana police also have a long history of high profile, controversial extrajudicial killings.

In the case of UP, statistics collated by the National Crime Records Bureau for UP show that crimes have increased manifold under Yogi Adityanath. The 2023 records show a staggering 65,743 cases of crimes against women which included, gang rape, murder and kidnapping in just one year. During the same year, the state reported 3,491 murders and 15,368 cases of atrocities against SCs and STs.  Police officers, retired cops point out, are now instructed to file fewer FIRs in order to show low crime rates.

The judiciary has comedown heavily against these encounters. In January 2019, the SC again expressed serious reservations after a series of encounter killings in UP were brought to its notice. 

But are such indictments enough? Surely the court should take suo-moto action against such officers in order to press the point that the life of every individual is protected under Article 21 of the Constitution. 

The problem is that our judicial processes are cumbersome and expensive. As of September 2026, the total number of pending cases across all levels of the judiciary has climbed past 59 million, with over 52 million clogging the district and subordinate courts alone. The public on the other hand want swift retribution and believe, falsely, that these encounters provide the swift elimination of criminals.