Sayama’s encounter was fake: NHRC

MUMBAI, May 15: In its submission before the Commission of Enquiry into Encounters today, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said t...

MUMBAI, May 15: In its submission before the Commission of Enquiry into Encounters today, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said the encounter of Abu Sayama alias Javed Fawda was a fake one, and alleged the police had violated human rights. The NHRC is playing an active role in the commission of enquiry after having received several complaints about fake encounters by police.

Counsel for NHRC, P M Pradhan, told the commission that the court itself had observed that nowhere in the evidence of sub-inspector Rajbhor of the Shivaji Park police station (investigating officer in the attempt-to-murder case in which Fawda was arrested) was it mentioned that Abu Sayama had protruding teeth. The police case is that Sayamma was called Fawda due to his protruding teeth.

He said Sayama’s sister Rubina has also not mentioned her brother had protruding teeth. “She only said her brother has one tooth placed over another, while if the tooth is protruding, it’s seen coming out,” he pointed out. He claimed therewas no mention of Sayama’s teeth in the post-mortem report as well, and added this proved it was a case of mistaken identity.

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Pradhan said police should have informed Sayama’s family about the encounter and handed over his body to them. He said MRA Marg police, where the First Information Report (FIR) was registered, should have taken Sayama’s address from Shivaji Park police station as they knew Sayama was earlier arrested by Shivaji Park police.

Had the police handed over Sayama’s body to his relatives, he held, Rubina wouldn’t have had to run to the JJ Hospital morgue to claim her brother’s body four days after he was killed.

Pradhan called the encounter a fake one and added Sayama was taken to some secluded spot and killed. The place shown by police is wrong, he said. Pradhan said assistant police inspector Vasant Dhoble had in his evidence pointed out that he did not notice any blood stains in the car in which Sayama was taken to the hospital. He stated that the findings in the post-mortem reportsclearly indicate bullet injuries in the body, and blood must have oozed out.

“If an encounter had taken place, how is it that there were no blood stains?” the counsel for NHRC asked.