American organization demands action against Yogi Adityanath for killings in ‘encounters’
An expert group of international criminal and human rights lawyers has urged the US government to take action against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for his role in alleged extra-judicial killings by Uttar Pradesh police forces between 2017 and 2021. Has submitted a submission and demanded a ban on Yogi.
The submission, filed before the US State Department and the US Treasury Department on February 9, also recommended sanctions against Omprakash Singh, who recently retired as UP DGP, and Kanpur District Superintendent of Police Sanjeev Tyagi. International lawyer Toby Cadman told The Wire: “We believe that there is evidence to suggest that when the police carried out these killings, the three men had command and control of the police, but they failed to stop them.” And such statements and orders also exist which link them directly to the crime.
An organization named Guernica 37 Center filed this submission. Cadman is an associate attorney for this organization. He further said, “There are credible sources in this statement which show how since the coming to power of Yogi Adityanath in government in 2017 at least 146 extra-judicial killings were committed in alleged ‘encounters’ as per a pattern and it has been termed as crimes by Yogi.” Declared ‘Zero Tolerance Policy’ against
He further said, “These encounters were shown as a confrontation between the police and the alleged criminals where the suspects were shot and the police termed it as an act of self-defense. However, in many of these cases the statements of witnesses, autopsy reports and other evidence suggest that the victims were actually killed.
It is known that Yogi Adityanath also holds the post of Home Minister of the state. Also, it is worth noting that this step of Guernica has come in the midst of the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. Be aware that the US’s global Magnitsky sanctions allow the US Treasury Department to impose sanctions on people who engage in serious human rights abuses of any kind, including extrajudicial killings, rape, torture, murders, or forced disappearances. is included.
When sanctions are imposed on a person, any property owned by him in the US is blocked and reported to the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). It also prohibits any person or organization in the US from having any kind of economic transaction with such people. These restrictions may also include a ban on US travel.
“Indian authorities have failed to take appropriate action against custodial torture, deaths and extra-judicial killings,” Human Rights Watch’s South Asia director Meenakshi Ganguly told The Wire. He further explained that this lack of accountability mechanism is the biggest reason for foreign governments to consider certain restrictions.
In January 2019, UN human rights experts also wrote a letter to the Indian government, warning that since March 2017 there have been 59 extrajudicial killings by police in Uttar Pradesh. UN experts then said that they were extremely concerned about it. At the same time, he had also expressed concern by drawing attention to how the top officials of the state government and police were justifying these killings. A few months after coming to power, Yogi Adityanath had said in a TV interview that his police would not hesitate to kill the criminals if they did not come on the way. The state government had also repeatedly publicized the killings as an achievement and termed it as its ‘zero tolerance policy’ against crime and maintaining law and order.
Most recently, in November 2021, a committee headed by a former Supreme Court judge called on the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and other investigating agencies to probe the 17 alleged killings in police encounters four years ago. Criticism was made that they did not investigate properly. In that report, Justice Madan B. Lokur wrote that such unconstitutional activities are being given a respectable appearance by wearing the garb of ‘immediate justice’, whereas in most cases these were brutally planned murders.
The Guernica 37 Center in the United States is part of the Guernica 37 Group, a group dedicated exclusively to international criminal and human rights lawyers working for the benefit of victims and their communities. More recently, it has also been involved in calling on the US and UK governments to impose sanctions against the Bangladesh government and their law enforcement officials.
Guernica’s submission regarding extra-judicial killings in Uttar Pradesh reads, “As the Chief Minister and Home Minister, the police in UP was under Yogi Adityanath. Apart from this, they also failed to rein in human rights abuses by the police, nor did they investigate and prosecute the culprits. On the contrary, he rewarded the police officers.
Om Prakash Singh, who was the Director General of Police (DGP) in Uttar Pradesh from January 2018 to January 31, 2020, is said to have completely commanded the police force in UP, but he faced serious threats by the police under his control. Failed to take action against human rights violations.
At the same time, Sanjeev Tyagi had been the Superintendent of Police of Kanpur from March 2021, before that he was the Superintendent of Police in Bijnor district from January 2019, Guernica 37 has written about him that he had direct control of such police officers in his hands who fought against the CAA. Serious human rights abuses were committed against the protesting people, in which two people died.
