The Supreme Court was apprised by the petitioners that the Justice HS Bedi-led Monitoring Committee report had marked foul play in 3 cases out of a total of 17. It added that the police officers identified in the Report must be prosecuted.
The report pertains to pleas relating to fake encounter killings allegedly carried out by the Gujarat Police during 2002-2007.
The Bench of Justice BR Gavai and Justice Sandeep Mehta after hearing the matter adjourned the matter by 2 weeks.
During the hearing, the Solicitor General Tushar Mehta reiterated an earlier stance that the petitioners were targeting a particular State (i.e. Gujarat) for alleged encounters in a particular span of time.
SGI clearly stated that public interest cannot be ‘selective’ and petitioners must explain the same.
The petition at present was been filed by journalist BG Verghese (since expired) along with poet-lyricist Javed Akhthar and social worker Shabnam Hashmi, who have casted aspersions that the Gujarat police encounters were fake and stage-managed.
The Supreme Court, in 2012, had appointed Retd. Justice HS Bedi who was former Judge at Supreme Court as the Chairman of a Monitoring Committee to monitor the investigation carried out by the Special Task Force (STF) in relation to the encounter killings.
in 2018,Justice Bedi submitted a sealed cover report to the court .Overruling the objections of the government, this report was directed by the court to be made public.
As per the Justice HS Bedi’s report prima facie evidence of foul play was fund in 3 out of 17 cases, which is of Kasam Jafar, Haji Haji Ismail and Sameer Khan, and recommended prosecution of 9 police officers involved in the cases.
A Supreme Court Bench comprising of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul had observed that it remained to be seen whether any directions were required to be passed by the court following the report of the Monitoring Committee.
On this aspect, Justice Sandeep Mehta said, “there is another petition coming up today…with respect to Uttar Pradesh”.
The post Fake encouters: Petitioners request Supreme Court to prosecute Police Officers identified in Justice HS Bedis enquiry report appeared first on India Legal.