Why India's 'fake encounters' are shockingly common

 

Red sandalwood is a beautiful wood. The best specimens are almost deep crimson and have a rich grain. It is highly prized for furniture in the Far East.

But in India they are now calling it "blood wood".
That's because last week 20 suspected smugglers of this exotic timber were killed in a shoot-out with police.
Red sandalwood is incredibly rare. It only grows in a few forests in south India. It is illegal to cut the trees or sell the wood and as a result "red sanders", as it is called in India, can be worth tens of thousands of pounds a ton.


The high price has fostered a rampant illicit trade in the stuff.
According to the official story, a police task force set up to tackle red sandalwood smuggling confronted a gang of more than 100 men deep in remote forests of Andhra Pradesh in the south of India.
They say the alleged smugglers responded with a hail of stones.
The police officers fired on them "in self defence", according to Andhra Pradesh police chief JV Ramudu.
Within hours journalists, opposition politicians and human rights groups including Amnesty International, had begun to question that account.
Why were so many of the dead shot in the head or torso and some in the back? Why did it appear the bodies had been moved? Why were the dead in two groups in different locations?
One local man claimed some of the dead men hadn't been in the forest at all, he said he's seen them taken off a bus by police officers.
Soon people were claiming the deaths had all the hallmarks of what, here in India, is called an "encounter killing", which the police routinely deny.