Former police officer alleges 'connivance' in Hashimpura case

A former police officer, who was initially involved in probe into the 1987 Hashimpura massacre of Uttar Pradesh, today said it was the "biggest ever incident of custodial killings" and alleged "connivance" between the then Congress governments at the Centre and in the state to deny justice to the victims.
"It would be a big mistake for the Indian state to forget incidents like Hashimpura and other such incidents in which the custodians of law are directly involved in acts of heinous crime," said Vibhuti Narayan Rai, former IPS officer, while delivering a lecture at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).
At the time of the incident, Rai was SSP of Ghaziabad where the case was registered as bodies were found there.

"When Hashimpura incident took place, Congress was in power, both in Centre and the state, but both the governments appeared to have connived in ensuring that the justice was not done to the victims," he said.
Rai claimed that he was given "cold shoulder" when he tried to raise the issue of giving strict punishment to those involved in the incident.
"At a meeting of senior police officials after the Hashimpura incident, I pleaded that action should immediately be initiated against those police officers, against whom prima facie evidence existed, for being involved in the custodial killings. I was told that the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) would have revolted if such an action is taken," he said.

"I suggested if PAC revolts, then we should call the army because the very foundations of justice were under threat. Unfortunately, within 24 hours, the case was removed from me and handed over to the state CID," he said.

Rai, also a noted Hindi writer who has written a book on the incident, claimed that he was "under intense pressure not to write this book because people want to forget such dark incidents. My stand is if we try to forget such incidents, then they will keep recurring and in the process the Indian State would be weakened."
The book will be shortly published, he said.

Disappointed over the recent judgement by the Delhi High Court on the killings, Rai said it should have ordered fresh investigation into the entire incident.