The Hindu : New Delhi News : PUDR picks several holes in police version on Pragati Maidan encounter

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 03, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

PUDR picks several holes in police version on Pragati Maidan encounter

Staff Reporter

`A constant scare on the terrorist threat being kept alive' `Why the police did not fire at the tyres of the Maruti car if the attempt was to intercept the car'

NEW DELHI: Pointing out several "inconsistencies" in the police version of the recent encounter here near Pragati Maidan in which two alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba militants were gunned down, the People's Union For Democratic Rights has demanded that the National Human Rights Commission investigate the matter. It has also accused the Special Cell of the Delhi police of aiming to "keep alive a constant scare on the terrorist threat".

According to the PUDR report, residents of the nearby slum cluster and the National Science Centre guards revealed that several plainclothesmen had been positioned around Link Road for at least an hour or two before the incident. Uniformed policemen were also stationed around the area and no vendor or pedestrian was allowed to stay. "In this situation, it is unlikely that the alleged terrorist would not have suspected anything and stopped the car," argues the report.

Further, contrary to the police version, the PUDR report claims that the guards at the National Science Centre did not see any car parked there for any length of time nor did they see any car being chased on to the Link Road.

The report also questions why the police did not fire at the tyres of the Maruti car if the attempt was to intercept the car. "According to the police, they started firing only when the militants got out of the car and fired at them. In this case, why are there only three bullet holes in the front of the windscreen, which look as if they were fired at close range and no other bullet marks on the car's body except for one hole in front grill," points out the report.

On the basis of previous fact-findings on encounters by the Special Cell of the Delhi police, the report further points out the lack of eyewitnesses on each occasion. It also argues that "the police are never hurt in the cross-fire even when they are only wearing civilian clothes and the encounters always take place in high-profile places like Ansal Plaza, Humayun's Tomb or Pragati Maidan".

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