Noida encounter: NHRC seeks report from UP cops in 4 weeks

Two days after a 27-year-old alleged criminal, Sumit Gurjar, was shot dead in Greater Noida in an “encounter”, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) issued notice to Uttar Pradesh police, stating that “elimination of a criminal in such an unlawful manner can never send a good message to a civilised society”.

On Wednesday, Gurjar’s family members had staged protests in Noida, alleging that he had been “killed in a fake encounter”.

Asking for a report in the case within four weeks, NHRC, in an official statement, said: “The Commission has observed that the allegations levelled by the family members and the villagers, if true, raise serious issues of violation of human rights of the deceased and the aggrieved family. Elimination of a criminal in such an unlawful manner can never send a good message to a civilised society. As has been emphasised time and again, police do not have a right to take away life of a human being. It is not the lawful way to deal with the criminals.”

On Tuesday night, Gautam Buddh Nagar police received a “tip-off” that three armed men – who were allegedly involved in the murder of two employees of Ponty Chadha’s liquor firm on September 20 – were in the area in a Swift Dzire car.

In a chase and exchange of fire that lasted for over an hour, one of the three alleged criminals received a bullet injury in the abdomen. The man, later identified as Sumit, was declared “brought dead” at the district hospital. A senior police officer said Sumit was an accused in the September 20 murder, as well in various robbery cases.

According to Gurjar’s family, he had gone to the local market in Chirchita village in Baghpat to buy carrot seeds when he was allegedly picked up by a police team on Saturday.

“When he did not return home, we started looking for him and came to know that he had been picked up by police. We went to the local police station but they claimed they did not know anything about it. Later, we were told that a police team from Noida had picked him up. We had approached Noida police but our concerns were not taken seriously. On Tuesday, we came to know that he had been shot dead in an encounter when we saw the news on television channels,” his uncle, Manveer Singh Gurjar, said.

Meanwhile, a day before the encounter, Gautam Buddha Nagar police had arrested three alleged members of the Gurjar gang in connection with the September 20 incident.

“A driver and security guard who worked for Ponty Chadha’s liquor firm were collecting money from liquor stores when they were robbed of Rs 3.95 lakh and shot dead. Investigation revealed that the accused belonged to the Gurjar gang and that Sumit was also involved in the case. Three of them were arrested on October 2,” a senior police officer said.