The recent encounter death of gangster Sunil Manchekar, who was ruling Thane city, has revived the debate on the efficacy of encounters as a strategy to counter organized crime. Mumbai, being the epicenter of organized crime in India, has a long history of encounters, going back to the killing of a dreaded criminal Manya Surve in 1981 by Isaq Bagwan. Since then the word ‘encounter’ has been added to the vocabulary of the Mumbai police, and the nature of gang wars in Mumbai city became transformed. Dawood, Chota Rajan, Arun Gawali and Amar Naik took over the reins of criminal activity from Varadrajan, Lala Karim and Haji Mastan. Instead of only indulging in all kinds of illegal activities they adopted the strategy of picking local unemployed youths to carry out their activities.

Pradip Sharma, Prafulla Bhosale, Daya Nayak and Ravindra Aangre are some well known encounter specialists in the Mumbai Police. They have eliminated hundreds of criminals in encounters. The logic given by these officers is “we do not have any option”. According to them, since the criminal justice system in India is not effective, these criminals manage to escape when they are produced in the courts. Another reason given in favour of encounters is it discourages recruitment to criminal gangs.

What is the ground reality? The records show that recruitment to criminal gangs is on the rise in urban centres. New criminals take over the reins when someone is eliminated. In the case of Thane city, a new gangster Hemant Pujari, declared himself as the official don of the city the very next day after Sunil Manchekar’s killing. This means there is a need to go into the basic causes that breed organized crime.

There is little doubt that the criminal justice system in India is crumbling and criminals are using its loopholes for their benefit. All three wings of the criminal justice system - police, courts and jails are corrupt. By the time a case comes before the court for hearing most of the investigating officers are either transferred or retired. Public prosecutors are poorly paid and frequently changed. Some cases of judges being bribed in high profile criminal cases have been witnessed. The criminal-politician nexus makes the task of police officers even more difficult. Due to these weaknesses the logic of encounters cannot be sustained. By acquiring the license to kill criminals one cannot stop crime. This logic will ultimately lead to the sidelining of legal procedures by the protectors of law themselves.      

When we take the recruitment strategy of criminal gangs into consideration, the data shows that most of them are illiterate or educated unemployed. Most of them are from underdeveloped regions. Thus, the socio-economic system provides the main recruitment grounds for criminals. Another breeding ground for them is the jail system in India. In Maharashtra, jails are officially divided on the basis of criminal gangs to avoid gang wars. For instance, Arthur jail is known as Chota Shakil jail, Thane jail is Dawood Jail, Pune and Kolhapur jails are for members of the Chota Rajan gang and Aurangabad jail is known as Arun Gawali jail. Another problem with the jail system is that it is very corrupt. The petty criminals are badly treated. Government allots only ten rupees per head for their daily food. On the other hand, members of the criminal gangs manage to enjoy a luxurious lifestyle by bribing the jail staff. As members of the same criminal gangs are put together, jails have become the centers for planning heinous crimes and recruiting petty criminals into gangs.

Another point that needs to be stressed here is the nature of criminal gangs that are sustained on the logic of continuity and networking. Criminal gangs have full-fledged cadres with legal, medical, family welfare, shooters and planning cells. They work on the principles of hierarchy and inheritance. Criminals join gangs with prepared to kill and get killed, and therefore encounters are not an adequate mechanism to stop them from joining criminal gangs. Their reasons for joining gangs should be addressed, but most importantly, all the criminals getting killed are only local agents of underworld dons. These agents can be used to reach their bosses if they are caught and taken into confidence.

As most encounters are allegedly fakes, it affects the human rights record of the Indian enforcement agencies. This has an adverse impact when it comes to getting criminals extradited from foreign countries. For all these reasons encounters cannot become a strategy to counter organized crime. Instead, the causes for the proliferation of organized crime should be urgently and effectively addressed.