FOR some time now, Yogi Adityanath’s reign in Uttar Pradesh is being held up as a model.  A leading publication named him the best chief minister in India for two years in a row; his efforts to curb crime have been lauded; his handling of the twin Corona and migrant crises have been highly praised. Of late, things had started unravelling and now the horrific killing of at least eight policemen on the night of July 2/3 in Kanpur Dehat by a notorious criminal and his gang threatens to reduce his reputation to tatters. 

Yogi had declared in May 2017, soon after he assumed office, that "Agar apradh karenge toh thok diye jayenge” (If they commit a crime, they will be hammered).  Encounters became the order of the day despite the warning that a former DGP of the state, Prakash Singh, had given that even a genuine encounter ‘cannot be an instrument of state police or stated policy’ which was completely disregarded and on September 16, 2017 the ADG law and order, Anand Kumar himself went to the extent of claiming that the encounters were being conducted as per ‘the desires of the government, expectations of the public and according to the constitutional and legal power accorded to the police.’ The same day, the UP police announced that to raise the morale of the police the government was allowing district police chiefs to announce rewards of upto Rs 1 lakh for a team that carries out an encounter. The constitutionality and legality of both the statement and the announcement of encounters being rewarded are denied by strictures that have been passed against encounters by various courts and commissions and by the 2010 NHRC guidelines on police encounters (reiterated by the Supreme Court in September, 2014) that ‘No…instant gallantry reward shall be bestowed on concerned officers soon after the occurrence.’

Within 180 days of the new dispensation, 420 encounters had taken place and 15 ‘criminals’ killed. By Republic Day 2019, the chief minister could announce that more than 3,000 encounters had taken place and 78 persons killed under his watch and the chief secretary instructed all district magistrates to publicise this fact as a major achievement of the government. 

Analyses of these encounters and killings, reveal strange truths: the ones killed who have a criminal record are mostly petty criminals; one of those killed was supposedly riding a motorcycle when he does not know how to ride one; a reward of Rs 50,000 was placed on a dalit after he was killed; many of the FIRs contain identical details; in almost all cases, post mortem reports have not been made available to the bereaved families and so on; about half of those killed are Muslims while the others are almost all dalits and OBC’s.

A few cases stand out.  In one, a reward of Rs 25,000 was announced and then enhanced to Rs 50,000 hours before Sumit Gurjar who had no criminal cases registered against him was killed, an award of first Rs 25,000 later enhanced to Rs 50,000 was announced.  Later on it was discovered that there is another Sumit Gurjar who had six cases registered against him in 2011 and these are the same as those that were leveled against the Sumit Gurjar who was killed.  The NHRC took cognizance of the case and asked the UP government to respond in four weeks, it had not done so until recently. A gym-trainer, Jitendra Yadav was picked up by some inebriated policemen.  When he protested, one of them shot him paralysing him waist-down.  He has not received any compensation despite the fact that one of the policemen was arrested.  In a third case, an Apple executive Vivek Tiwari was shot dead by policemen patrolling in Lucknow at night.  This created an uproar and the policemen responsible were dismissed from service and the government gave his family compensation and his widow a government job. In no other case of an encounter did the government show any compassion, a fact that is attributed to its anti-lower caste and anti-minority mindset. 

The brutality against dalits exhibited in Shabbirpur (Saharanpur  district), the repeated use of NSA against dalits and Muslims like Chandrashekhar Ravan and Dr Kafeel Khan, the intimidation, arrests and physical attacks on dalits, including minor children, accused of having participated in the April 2, 2018 Bharat bandh against dilution of the PoA Act, the formation of Romeo squads to tackle cases of ‘love jihad’, the crackdown on the meat trade, the denial of justice to lynching victims – are all examples of this mindset at work.  Once the protests against the CAA/NRC/NPR started in December 2019, the viciousness of the government attained new and terrible heights.  Young Muslim men were gunned down in several cities and prominent activists were subjected to brutality, arrests, huge fines and threats of attachment of their property. 

The government also has shown no compunctions in going to any extent to protect its own. It has withdrawn cases against the CM himself and against those accused of violent and murderous attacks on Muslims in the 2012 riots, it has extended protection to a ruling party MLA, Kuldeep Sengar, accused and now convicted of raping a minor and it has withdrawn a case of rape filed in 2011 against Chinmayanand, minister of state for home in the Vajpayee government. Today it is promising justice to the eight brave policemen killed last week but the killers of an equally brave policeman, Inspector Subodh Singh, who was killed with the same kind of brutality as was meted out to Circle Inspector Misra, were publicly felicitated by leaders of the ruling party in the presence of the police when they were released on bail just months after the heinous murder.

The priorities of the government were clearly set out for the administration and the police. Bringing a notorious criminal like Vikas Dubey did not find place in these priorities and he was allowed to flourish.  He had 60 serious cases against him but, since the reward on him was only Rs 25,000 he did not find place in the list of most wanted!  Despite the cases and the reward, he is living in great luxury in his own home, holding court and making sure that the local police did his bidding.  Even his gun licences were not cancelled.  He had been arrested in Lucknow as recently as 2017 but soon returned home for which he publicly thanked two BJP MLAs who did not object then but are denying their involvement now.  The lack of any attempts by the government or administration to put an end to his activities was not surprising considering that in 2001 when there was a BJP government in the state, he had gunned down a BJP leader with ministerial status along with two policemen in a police station but was not pursued and arrested but allowed to ‘surrender’ months later. Later, he was acquitted by the lower court and neither the government (now BSP) nor the BJP appealed against this.  Since then he has gone from strength to strength. 

The CO, later murdered, had made serious allegations to the SSP, Kanpur against the station officer of the Chaubeypur PS (under which Dubey’s village falls) accusing him of conniving with Dubey in various matters and asking for action to be taken.  The SSP at the time had earlier been SSP, Muzaffarnagar where he had earned the distinction of having carried out the highest number of encounters in the state but somehow he did not move against Dubey.  It was only after he was transferred that the CO received permission for the new SSP to arrest Dubey on the fateful night of July 2/3. It is alleged that the SO against whom he had complained played informer and tipped Dubey off about the police action.  Dubey was able, therefore, to plan his deadly attack on the police force. The brave CO was killed as brutally as Subodh Singh had been. It remains to be seen if, eventually, his killers are treated in the same way as Subodh Singh’s were.

Meanwhile, Yogi Adityanath’s carefully crafted reputation is being reduced to tatters.