Sunday, March 06, 2011

Mumbai's infamous "Dirty Harrys" police squad makes a quiet return...


They were known as "the encounter squad", a team of elite policemen who left a trail of hundreds of dead criminals behind them. Heroes to the local media, notorious as extra-judicial killers to others, the 12 best-known among them became celebrities.

But when their brand of rough justice was no longer seen as useful or desirable, they underwent a spectacular fall from grace. Few if any were charged with murder, but most were suspended over allegations of corruption, and some left the force for good.

(...)

One of the reasons for the squad's creation was the weakness of the criminal justice system. Slow, corrupt and ineffective, the creaking court process meant that securing convictions against organised criminals was virtually impossible. By contrast, the encounter squad offered an efficient – if bloody and controversial – solution: over a seven-year period, more than a thousand criminals died at the hands of the police. Critics said they were little more than extra-judicial killings. Full story...

Don't miss:
  1. Godless justice: police torture and brutality in Tamil Nadu, India...
  2. Cops in India beat a man to death...
  3. Indian police 'threw pregnant mother from train for failing to pay bribe' 
  4. Cops in India tell mother to strip and have sex with her son!!!
  5. India, where cops can be worse than criminals...
  6. Cops in India behaving like thugs... 

No comments:

Post a Comment