to goanet The debate whether encounter killings started with JR seems inconclusive. I did an exclusive interview with him when he came to Toronto. His visit was kept secret and I was the only journalist who was allowed to interview him. At the hotel lobby in Mississauga he was surrounded by plainclothes police security. Had his presence been known in Toronto, the Sikhs in favour of Khalistan would have come there to protest. Mind you, my interview was arranged by a Sikh. However, the subject of the interview was restricted to talking about the piracy issue of Hindi movies. Toronto was one of the key destinations for illegal movies, coming from Dubai. JR was on his way to US to attend a conference dealing with global privacy. At that time, JR was anti-piracy chief for the film producers association of India. Though off-the-record I did ask him about his Punjab role and the attack on him in Hungary. I had come to know him briefly when he came to Mumbai as Police Commissioner from somewhere else in Maharashtra. I was occasionally doing "substitute" duty as crime reporter but the job involved going to the police headquarters at Crawford Market and collecting the daily briefing. As usual, there would be talks of what's happening in the underworld. There's a good article on JR in the now-defunct Imprint magazine written by Dom Moraes. If I remember the heading correctly the headline was "Ribeiro in the badlands." Dom's father, Frank, and JR were friends (I think they were college mates) and JR wanted to become a journalist but ultimately chose to be a cop. His Punjab policy is confusing. He is said to follow the "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, and bullet for a bullet" policy. The policy had government sanction. I have read many books on the Khalistan issue. I don't remember much of it. I gifted the books to a Punjabi journalist friend. Yes, KPS Gill practiced this policy to the hilt. In many ways, the policy had its desired effect though human rights groups in India and in the rest of the world were unhappy about it. The Khalistan were involved in random killings of policemen. In a sort of way, both Gill and JR turned Punjab from a lawless state to a police state. Its merits and demerits I remember reading that JR said that many top brass of the police were involved with the underworld and he found it hard to carry out his plans. He said that decision taken by the police on raids were leaked to the underworld within an hour or so. He believed in taking a tough line. "Encounter killings" is bad because it goes against "natural justice." I agree with Marshall that sometime publisher want to make a "killing" and they prefer a title that would catch the eye and would draw lot of readers. Yes, sometimes one need to separate the "man" and his "job." A good human being can both be a tough policeman. JR combined both qualities. Unfortunately, I haven't read his book. Police subjects doesn't interested me, as much as politics.
eugene