When Sheikh Haider Ali, 58, was arrested after a daring escape bid and brought back to jail in April, many thought pending trial in cases against the convicted prisoner would be fast-tracked. His death in a police encounter while being shifted from one jail to another on July 24 afternoon has rattled human rights activists and political observers in Odisha, who have called the incident “unnecessary and immoral” and demanded a probe.
Haider’s wife, Hasina Bibi, who lives in his ancestral house in Kendrapara, has dubbed the encounter as murder by police. “The police killed him,” she said, crying. “We were cooperating in the police investigation against him. But the police have deliberately killed him.” The state government has deployed a large number of policemen in Kendrapara to prevent any unrest following Haider’s death.
Police said Haider was shot when he tried to escape while being shifted from a jail in Chaudhwar in Cuttack district to one in Baripada in Mayurbhanj on July 24 afternoon. He was pronounced dead upon arrival at the Balasore district headquarters hospital. Footage of Haider with his upper body splattered with blood beamed on television news channels, sparking mixed views about the incident.
Statements made by two senior police officers immediately after Haider’s encounter have raised questions aplenty. Both Bhubaneswar-Cuttack twin-city Police Commissioner Soumendra Priyadarshi and Cuttack DCP Prateek Singh said in their statements to the media that Haider was fired upon “in a controlled manner”.
“When the escort party was getting him down the bus so that he could ease himself, he snatched a gun from a uniformed personnel and tried to run in an escape bid. The escort party was forced to fire upon him in a controlled manner in order to prevent his escape. He was holding a gun and trying to run away,” said Soumendra Priyadarshi.
Cuttack DCP Prateek Singh said, “In the police escort, there was a guard with him (Haider). He tried to snatch his gun and there ensued a scuffle between them. He was given a warning. When he tried to escape with the gun, our sub-inspector fired at him in a controlled manner to prevent him from escaping”.
Sheikh Haider, who was convicted in two murder cases and sentenced to life in imprisonment both times, had risen from being a poor rickshaw-puller in Kendrapara to a dreaded gangster in Odisha. He had been in jail since March 2011.
“Was this controlled firing? Haider was shot in the chest. So how can we say it was controlled firing? This seems to be murder by police in the name of encounter. No matter how big a criminal a person is, when they are in police or jail custody it is entirely wrong to shoot at them. This so-called and disputed encounter should be investigated and the guilty policemen and officers must be booked,” said senior journalist and columnist Sandeep Sahu.
Dr Sunita Mohanty, state education officer of the International Human Rights Council (IHRC), said: “The police have no right to punish, let alone kill anyone. If Haider had tried to escape, the police could have shot him under the waist to prevent his escape. That would have been firing in a controlled manner. This death appears to have been a cold-blooded murder by men in uniform. It needs to be investigated and the perpetrators must be punished. We will raise this issue.”
“Haider was a gangster. His death may not spark public outrage. However, the manner in which he died while the police were taking him from Chaudhwar jail to Baripada jail is certainly being viewed with suspicion. The firing was not controlled at all. He appears to have been deliberately murdered. The matter should be investigated,” said Rabi Das, a senior journalist and political analyst.
Senior Congress leader Pradip Majhi called Haider’s death in the encounter “a simple murder by the police” and demanded a thorough investigation. “Has Odisha become Uttar Pradesh? Killing anyone in police custody is a totally a criminal act. The culprits should be punished,” said Majhi.
However, senior journalist and columnist Shital Tarang Beuria, saw nothing wrong in Haider’s death and the police encounter. “Encounters should happen from time to time. There is nothing wrong in it. This will reduce crime. There is nothing wrong in notorious criminals like Haider bein eliminated in encounters,” he said.
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