Alleged atrocities committed by the Special Task Force (STF), under senior police officer Shankar Bidari from 1993 to 1996, cost him dear as the Karnataka High Court on Friday shot down Mr Bidari’s appointment as director general and inspector general of police and ordered the state government to appoint senior-most IPS officer A.R. Infant as the ad hoc DG&IGP.
Criticising Mr Bidari severely, the high court said that even after 15 years of incidents of atrocities, he neither had remorse nor is he prepared to accept the responsibility for the human rights violations.
The high court upheld the Central Administrative Tribunal’s order quashing Mr Bidari’s appointment, and directed the state to place Mr Infant in the post till the fresh process of empanelment is done by the Union Public Service Commission. The bench, headed by Justice N. Kumar, dismissed both petitions filed by Mr Bidari and the state as without merit and substance.
Hitting out at Mr Bidari, who stated in his objection that he was not a Gaddafi or a Saddam Hussein, as he worked under the supervision of few higher police officers and two Chief Ministers and that they too should equally share the responsibility, the court said, “It shows the mindset of Mr Bidari.
If the statements of the two women victims in the NHRC report, who have accused Mr Bidari of being present while they were tortured and raped, were true then he is worse than Gaddafi and Saddam.”
Mr Bidari headed the Special Task Force formed to catch brigand Veerappan between 1993 and 1996. The National Human Rights Commission investigated allegations of atrocities against tribals during his period and submitted the report.
It was worse for the state government when it moved a memo for a stay of the high court order soon after it dismissed the petitions. The court dismissed the memo too and observed: “Now we are fully convinced. If the state has any respect for law, womanhood, human rights of tribals and socially backward people, it should relieve Bidari forthwith and appoint Mr Infant in his place. Otherwise, they are answerable to the public of the state.”
The court, in its lengthy order, also held that the empanelment process prior to appointing Mr Bidari was ‘void and illegal’. The court held that the state should have placed the NHRC report and other service records of Mr Bidari before the UPSC.
“The state and Mr Bidari deliberately suppressed the NHRC report, which has found gross human rights violations during his tenure as the STF commandant, and has only sent positive records,” Justice Kumar observed.
A division bench, headed by Justice N. Kumar, which dictated the orders for more than six hours since Thursday afternoon, hauled up Mr Bidari on the basis of the NHRC report which points to the death of 66 people, including 36 who were killed in suspicious encounters, a majority of them illiterates, tribal men and women residing in 48 villages adjoining vast forest areas of M.M. Hills.
“May be due to the ambience and nature of operation, there might be some police excesses, but at any cost, we cannot tolerate rape as a means of investigation by the police,” the court observed.
Referring to the report, the bench observed that two particular cases where the victims have accused Mr Bidari as responsible for their fate (they have stated during investigation that they were raped, tortured right in front of him) and the government compensating them with Rs 2 lakh each based on the NHRC report is sufficient evidence against him (Bidari).
Observing that the chief minister should have used his discretion while exercising his absolute power in selecting Mr Bidari for the post, the court said such discretionary power must be exercised with great caution. “The Chief Minister, before exercising his power, did not see the police records,” the court said in its order.
“Both the State and Mr Bidari did not want the report to be placed before the UPSC. It is now clear that why the A.J. Sadashiva report was kept under wraps”, the court noted. “By characterising this report as one without jurisdiction, the government of the day and Mr Bidari are afraid of the truth. We are convinced that the report of the Sadashiva Panel was deliberately withheld,” the court observed.